Soviet ICBM Exploded On Launch Pad - The Nedelin Catastrophe (USSR 1960)

Politics and science don't always mix. Here is the story of one of the most disastrous events in the history of the Soviet space program. Rocket engineers, already under pressure, were squeezed even further to meet an ideologically appropriate deadline....and it ended in catastrophe.

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[chocolatechip]

It's always a bit amazing when people who bully themselves into positions of power forget that you can't bully physics.

[jospi]

They've learned from their mistakes, now it explodes underground.

[MightyMezzo]

Let me get this straight: Two fellows survived the explosion because they decided to sneak a CIGARETTE? Around volatile chemicals of all sorts?

[voutsider]

Can you imagine being so terrified of your superior, that you'd rather sit next to a launching rocket, then face his wrath later on

[thronezwei]

Safety regulations?

In the Soviet Union, that tended to translate to "Someone else's problem, comrade."

[Smedley]

In the color footage of the fire with the people running away, what you are seeing following them is the smoke from their clothing being ignited by the incredibly fierce infrared radiating from the fireball. They are not IN the fireball but they are close enough for the infrared to heat their clothing and likely fingers and ears and their backside to kindling temperature. I cannot imagine the pain caused by that.

[richardmcgowan]

This is what happens when you place people into positions of power that dont have a clue. Happens more and more today.

[djpalindrome]

Nedelin was typical of the overbearing bullies produced by the Soviet system. You had to be in order to survive there in a position of authority. He paid the ultimate price for his arrogance with not only his own life but scores of others too intimidated to object to his recklessness

[basbleupeaunoire]

The detail about the tar - brutal! Like in a nightmare - trying to run, but going nowhere.

[getupstairstobed]

Those rarest of times that smoking a ciggie extends your life.

[ChristopherSaindon]

The US LGM-25 used hypergolic ignition as well. Titan II used Aerozine 50 which is a 50:50 mix by weight of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, and Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide which is the oxidizer. The oxidizer is horrifically dangerous, and is classified as: *Poison Class "A"*

[frakismaximus]

Ironically, Russia just had another huge failure of an ICBM test a few days ago. The propellant (or fuel?) Ignited in the silo and it resulted in obliteration of the test site.

[davidprince]

The Challenger explosion was caused by politics as well. From my understanding, the ground engineers kept giving the down vote to the launch due to the temperature. Seals were designed for extremely high, but not low, temperatures. The last meeting did not include those engineers and in their absence, the go for launch order was given.

[michaelproust]

You left out the best bit of the story. After the inferno the Soviets had to search the area to try and find some bodies and of course they were most interested in finding the General. Soviets officers wear their medals at all times, the only evidence of the general was his oxidised medals on the pad.

[eatdawontonsoup]

by looking at how soviets ran things I would say Gagarin wasn’t the first man in space but surely the first man that made it back alive

[shanepatrick]

This was also a contributing factor in why the U.S. won the Space Race. With the death of most of the lead space engineers, the Soviet lunar rocket design fell to people who were not as experienced and couldn't design a rocket capable of taking a manned capsule to the moon. Keep in mind that the Saturn V rocket was the first rocket purpose built to carry humans into space... all rockets used on both sides of the race prior to this were designed to carry nuclear warheads to hostile targets which are much closer than the moon.

[jonathanaikman]

This is what happened with the Kursk submarine. Help from outside Russia to recover some surviving crew members that had been heard in the wreck was refused so that once again, Putin and Russia could save face. When Putin later faced some angry relatives of the dead crew who lambasted him, they were tranquilised and carried out of the room.

[trent]

The Ravens eyes intro sound is excellent, dark, ominous, kinda like Dark 5.

[michaelroloson]

The Soviets were not the only ones to act like that. Remember the Challenger? It came out much later that engineers of the shuttle rockets knew that the O-Rings were not to be subjected to such tempatures of the cold. Yet NASA would not listen and ordered the launch. Smaller life loss. But then one life is one life too many.

[OffendingTheOffendable]

Uri died a sad death. Poor guy survived space, then was killed by a pile of crap Soviet airplane