The Nedelin Catastrophe: A Secret Rocket Explosion?
The Cold War led to possibly the greatest distortion of human behavior ever seen. Never before or since have so many resources been expended in a giant, man-made “what if” as the two superpowers o…
The Nedelin Catastrophe: A Secret Rocket Explosion?
The Cold War led to possibly the greatest distortion of human behavior ever seen. Never before or since have so many resources been expended in a giant, man-made “what if” as the two superpowers of the age, the United States and the Soviet Union, squared off against each other.
Innovation was the name of the game (this was an arms “race” after all) but the breakneck pace at which new weapons and new technology were rushed into active service meant that corners were often cut. Some bullets were dodged, such as the potentially fatal oscillation of the center engine on the Apollo rocket that went to the Moon. But sometimes the results were catastrophic.
So it was with the Nedelin Catastrophe, named for its overall instigator and its highest ranking fatality. Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, in his mad dash to find an advantage over the hated Americans, killed countless people including himself in an instant.
The year in 1960 and the place is the Baikonur test range in Kazakhstan, in the heart of the Soviet Union. Several launch decisions had cost lives before. However, no launch decision had taken as many lives as the Nedelin Catastrophe did.
References
NASA System Failure Case Studies, 2006. Death on the Steppes. Available at: https://sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-source/safety-messages/safetymessage-2005-11-01-nedelinrocketdisaster.pdf?sfvrsn=1aa91ef8_4
Zak, A, 2022. Nedelin’s Disaster. Available at: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/r16_disaster.html
R, Tony. 2010. The Nedelin Disaster. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-nedelin-disaster-146124579/
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