On October 26, 1960, in the central newspapers of the USSR, a message appeared about the death of the Commander-in-Chief of the Rocket Forces of the Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin in a plane crash. Everything about him was true, except for one thing: the disaster was a missile.
In the late 1950s, the United States put several dozen ICBMs on alert. Soviet missiles could not reach US territory. The R-16 rocket under development was supposed to solve this problem. The Central Committee urged the missilemen in every possible way: they wanted to time the successful launch to the anniversary of the revolution - November 7, 1960. To a large extent, because of this "acceleration of development", the rocket was sent from the factory with imperfections. On October 21, her pre-launch tests began. After 2 days, the rocket was refueled and began to prepare for launch, but a fuel leak was found. In a filled state, the R-16 could stand no more than 24 hours - the rubber sealing systems could no longer withstand. The start was scheduled for October 24 …
On October 24, at 18 hours 45 minutes local time, when the thirty-minute readiness had already been announced, a check was still underway at the start. In addition to the personnel performing the necessary work, there were many other people on the site - members of the state commission, military and civilian specialists. The chairman of the state commission, Marshal Nedelin, was sitting in a chair next to the rocket.
Verification tests continued, when suddenly blows were heard in the depths of the rocket. Following this, a fiery torch burst out of the nozzle of the second stage. In a matter of seconds, the rocket and launching facilities were engulfed in flames. The multi-meter colossus broke in half and fell on the launch pad. People enveloped in flames writhed in pain and died in agony under the lenses of automatic cameras. Those were supposed to capture the successful launch of the P-16. From the memoirs of the commander of the communications platoon, senior lieutenant A. Maslov: “The flame that flew across the concrete licked me all over. I was on fire, I thought: it's over. But something prompted, since I was in my memory - run! I ran, but I was all engulfed in flames, began to roll in the sand … I woke up in the hospital on the second day."
Fiery hell
As soon as the fire subsided a little, the emergency services got down to work. The picture was terrible. Everywhere
charred corpses that cannot be identified. Among the rescuers, some rank from the special unit ran and, threatening the officer on duty with a pistol, demanded from him an answer where Marshal Nedelin was.
In the evening, a telegram went to Moscow: “There are victims of up to 100 or more people. The Chief Marshal was at the test site. They are looking for him now. " The telegram was signed by the technical test manager and chief designer Mikhail Yangel. He himself was not injured - just a few minutes before the incident he went to the smoking room. At least that is how Yangel answered Khrushchev's question: "Why did you stay alive?"
Later, a piece of cloth from a marshal's tunic and a deputy's badge were found in the ashes. In addition to Nedelin, 57 servicemen and 17 representatives of the defense industry were killed in the fire. In November and December, 11 more people died from burns and poisoning.
The Commission of Inquiry was headed by Leonid Brezhnev, who immediately told the experts: "We will not punish anyone, all the guilty have already been punished."The commission's report said that the preparation of the rocket for launch was carried out with the engine starting system filled with fuel and the onboard power supply turned on, which could not be done categorically - it is safer to smoke on a barrel of gunpowder. As a result, the second stage engine was prematurely started, which burned through the bottom of the first stage oxidizer tank with its torch, and then the second stage fuel tank collapsed …
The successful launch of the R-16 rocket took place only on February 2, 1961. In addition to human tragedies, this disaster, the largest in the history of Soviet cosmonautics, entailed an important consequence. The rocket launch with the first man on board was delayed. It was previously slated for December 1960.
