'Most powerful' nuclear missile will be deployed this year says Putin
Sky News →Vladimir Putin says Russia will deploy the world's 'most powerful' nuclear missile at the end of this year.
Russian Rocket Right On Target
LONDON, IR — The Soviet Union Tuesday launched a rocket into the Pacific, beginning tests of a new powerful multi-stage carrier rocket for space exploration, Moscow radio announced. A Tass announcement said the flight of the rocket launched yesterday strictly followed the preset program. "The dummy of the last stage of the rocket reached the water surface in close proximity to the target, 3,400 kilometers (2,078 miles) from the launching site," the Tass announcement said.
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Enlarge → What Happened Next
Nedelin catastrophe
During pre-launch testing, a fault in the replaced main sequencer caused the second-stage engine to fire while the missile was still on the pad. This ruptured the first stage directly below, causing an explosion that destroyed the missile. People near the rocket were instantly incinerated; those farther away were burned to death or poisoned by the toxic fuel component vapors.
Wikipedia →Missile gap
Hawkish members of Congress, such as Senator Stuart Symington, continued to beat the drums about the alleged missile gap in an effort to pressure the president to increase spending on military hardware. President Eisenhower resented being bullied based on inaccurate information and was beginning to formulate the term 'military-industrial complex' to describe the close nexus between U.S. politicians and the defense industry. In 1958, Kennedy was gearing up for his Senate re-election campaign and seized the issue.
Wikipedia →Vostok 1
Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 12 April 1961, with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to reach orbital velocity around the Earth and to complete a full orbit around the Earth.
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