165 Reported Killed in 1960 Blast
A Soviet army newspaper revealed last week that 165 people, including a top general, were killed 30 years ago when a rocket exploded on the launch pad, making it the worst known space-related accident in the Soviet Union. Secrecy has shrouded the accident at the Baikonur Space Center ever since the explosion shot flames into the Central Asian sky on Oct. 24, 1960. No official death toll or technical details of the accident have ever been released, despite several articles describing the event.
The newspaper said the rocket was a new design, believed to be a new type of missile. The explosion apparently came after the first stage failed to ignite, and technicians tried to replace one component.
“Somebody plugged an umbilical cord into the wrong connection,” igniting the second stage, said James Oberg, an expert on Soviet space science.
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