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The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster, known in Russia as the Catastrophe at Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russian: Катастрофа на Байконуре, romanized: Katastrofa na Baikonure), was a launch-pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR, during preparations for the first test flight of a prototype R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile.

The missile's second-stage engine ignited while it was still on the pad, rupturing the first stage and causing a fire and explosion among military and technical personnel gathered around the fuelled missile. The Soviet authorities suppressed information about the disaster for decades and falsely reported that Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, head of the R-16 development programme, had died in an air crash. A 1994 state commission report gave the death toll as 78, including 74 killed at the site and four who later died in hospital; other estimates have varied. The accident is commonly described as the deadliest launch accident associated with rocket or spaceflight activity, although the R-16 was being tested as a military missile.

On 23 October 1960, the prototype R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile had been installed on launching pad 41 (Russian: стартовая позиция 41) awaiting final tests before launch.

The explosion incinerated or asphyxiated Nedelin, a top aide, the USSR's top missile-guidance designer, and over 70 other officers and engineers.

The missile remained on the pad while troubleshooting and launch preparations overlapped, and personnel who should have been in protected positions were gathered near the vehicle. Schedule pressure to complete the first R-16 launch before the 7 November anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution contributed to the erosion of normal safety margins.

The first Western reporting of the accident via the Italian Continentale News Agency in December 1960 said that 100 people were killed, while The Guardian reported in 1965, citing information from spy Oleg Penkovsky who had passed information to the West, that as many as 300 had died. The Soviet Union said only that a "significant number" had died when it first acknowledged the incident in a 1989 Ogoniok article, but later in the year, the government put the number of dead at 54. The most recent estimated death toll, released by Roscosmos on the 50th anniversary of the accident and originating with agency engineer Boris Chertok, was that 126 people had died, but the agency qualified the number by saying that the actual number could be anywhere from 60 to 150 dead. According to results of a 1994 report by a state commission, casualties totaled 78 people, of which 74 died on site, and 4 succumbed to their injuries in the hospital later.

A news release stated that Nedelin had died in a plane crash and the families of the other engineers were advised to say their loved ones had died of the same cause. Another fatal accident, with the R-9 missile, occurred at Baikonur exactly three years after the Nedelin catastrophe, causing 24 October to be referred to as Baikonur's "Black Day." No launches have been attempted on that date at Baikonur ever since.

A news release stated that Nedelin had died "in a plane crash while on an undisclosed mission". The Italian news agency Continentale first reported on 8 December 1960, from undisclosed sources, that Marshal Nedelin and 100 people had been killed in a rocket explosion. The Guardian reported on 16 October 1965 that captured spy Oleg Penkovsky had confirmed details of the missile accident, and exiled scientist and Soviet dissident Zhores Medvedev provided further details in 1976 in the British weekly magazine New Scientist. Intelsat 708 – 1996 launch failure, which killed an unknown number of people in the worst space launch disaster since Nedelin

"The Nedelin Catastrophe" – article from Air & Space Magazine

Quick Facts

• The Soviet authorities suppressed information about the disaster for decades and falsely reported that Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, head of the R-16 development programme, had died in an air crash.
• The accident is commonly described as the deadliest launch accident associated with rocket or spaceflight activity, although the R-16 was being tested as a military missile.
• The missile's second-stage engine ignited while it was still on the pad, rupturing the first stage and causing a fire and explosion among military and technical personnel gathered around the fuelled missile.
• A 1994 state commission report gave the death toll as 78, including 74 killed at the site and four who later died in hospital; other estimates have varied.
• Another fatal accident, with the R-9 missile, occurred at Baikonur exactly three years after the Nedelin catastrophe, causing 24 October to be referred to as Baikonur's "Black Day." No launches have been attempted on that date at Baikonur ever since.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Nedelin catastrophe". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.