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The Nedelin Catastrophe - October 24 1960
Commander Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin of USSR's Strategic Rocket Forces sped up the development of a missile so that it can launch on November 7. The launch progressed with a known fuel leak. When someone in the command bunker was flipping a switch to correct a setting, it activated the second stage rocket which blasted through a fuel tank it caused an explosion and a fireball that reached up to 395 feet. About 250 people were spectating at the time and sadly only 49 people survived the explosion. -
Vostok 1 Training Fire - March 23 1961
During a training exercise on March 23 1961 Valentin and Bondarenko a fire broke out, which caused by the pure oxygen atmosphere in the pressure chamber. Bondarenko sadly died from the fire. -
Soyuz 1 Parachute failure - April 23 1967
On April 23, 1967 there were over 200 unsolved issues with the Soyuz 1 spacecraft on the day of its launch. It seemed to start well but there were trouble shortly after liftoff including the left solar panel not being deployed and lots of other problems so the decision was made to bring it back as it entered the atmosphere the parachute failed to deploy it then fell to earth which caused a fireball as it crashed into the ground at top speeds. -
Apollo 1 - April 24 1967
On April 24, 1967 during a launch rehearsal a cabin fire started killing all three crew members including Roger B. Chafee, Virgil I Grissom and Edward H, White. The ignition source of the fire was electrical and the fire spread due to the flammable nylon in the ship. -
X-15 Crash - November 15 1967
The X-15 was the fastest manned rocket plane ever and the pilot was Major Michael J Adams. The flight started perfectly everything was going to plan. This was his seventh flight on the X-15. But at about 250000 feet the X-15 started spiraling and was going down at high speeds to the ground. Eventually the X-15 hit the ground ending in an explosion and the death of michael. -
Soyuz 11 Decompression Accident - June 30, 1971
On June 7, 1971 The Salyut 1 Spacecraft launched and stayed in space for 23 days until the scheduled descent back to earth which was going perfectly but when it landed the rescuers open the ship to find all three crew members as they sat on their couches. -
Soyuz TM-18-1 Abort - April 5 1975
The first two stages of rocket fire and separation went as planned but the third stage failed to separate, although it did ignite. The spacecraft began to gyrate and the crew members asked for abort procedure. the ship was falling back to earth at very high speeds eventually the parachute opened and the crew landed safely. -
Vostok Rocket Explosion – March 18, 1980
During a double rocket launch the unmanned rocket "Vostok" was ready to launch when it blew up during fueling. The explosion set off 300 tons of fuel killing 45 soldiers in the area. -
The Soyuz T-10-1 Launch Explosion – September 26, 1983
September 26, 1983 during a normal launch a fuel valve failed to close spraying fuel onto the launch pad which set fire to the electrics and to the ship. To get the crew out of the ship two commanders had to enter a code and press a button within five seconds of each other. The crew successfully escaped ending in no fatality's. -
Titan 4 Crane Incident – September 7, 1990
September 7, 1990 A Crane was lifting a 30 foot engine through a underground tunnel when the floor under the crane caved in sending 255,000 pounds of solid fuel inside the motor down a hill side then turning into a huge fire at the bottom with mushroom clouds. The crane operator died and nine other citizens were injured.
