If you get killed during rocket launches in a communist country, the government will simply use their propaganda/censorship machine to deny everything... The Nedelin catastrophe was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at the Soviet Baikonur Cosmodrome test range during the development of the Soviet ICBM R-16. As a prototype of the missile was being prepared for a test flight, an explosion occurred when second stage engines ignited accidentally, killing *91* military and technical personnel working on the preparations. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, news of it was suppressed for many years and the Soviet government did not even acknowledge the event until 1989. There was another catastrophe at the Soviet Plesetsk Cosmodrome, with an explosion during the launch of a Vostok rocket on 18 March, 1980. It left a total of *48* members of the Soviet Missile Troop dead. The rocket had been carrying a military spy satellite, Ikar. The Soviet Communist Party newspaper, Pravda, reported at the time that the launch had been a success. On 14 February 1996, the Intelsat 708 satellite was to be launched aboard a Long March 3B rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at Xichang, Peoples Republic of China. This rocket failed at launch due to an engineering defect and crashed into a town near the launch site in an enormous explosion, destroying much of it. The Chinese government, through its official Xinhua news agency, reported that only 6 people were killed and 57 injured. However, outside estimates suggest that anywhere between **200-500** people might have been killed in the crash.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:28:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015