RUSSIA has marked the 50th anniversary of the world's most horrific, and least publicized, space catastrophe, when 126 people died in a launch pad explosion.
In the 1960 disaster - known in the West as the Nedelin disaster after a Russian commander who perished - victims were burned alive or vaporized altogether, while others died of noxious fumes or later succumbed to burns.
Authorities and relatives of victims held a memorial service at the weekend at the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan and laid flowers at their mass graves.
On Oct. 24, 1960, the Soviet Union was scheduled to launch a prototype intercontinental ballistic missile when it exploded on the launch pad.
The testing crew had accidentally initiated the 2nd stage of the rocket, which ignited the 1st stage, causing the disaster.
"People died in horrific pain, essentially burning alive, but the country and the rest of the world practically never learnt anything about that terrible catastrophe and its heroes-victims," Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
"To this day, it is considered the most horrific (tragedy) in the history of space exploration."
In the 1960 disaster - known in the West as the Nedelin disaster after a Russian commander who perished - victims were burned alive or vaporized altogether, while others died of noxious fumes or later succumbed to burns.
Authorities and relatives of victims held a memorial service at the weekend at the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan and laid flowers at their mass graves.
On Oct. 24, 1960, the Soviet Union was scheduled to launch a prototype intercontinental ballistic missile when it exploded on the launch pad.
The testing crew had accidentally initiated the 2nd stage of the rocket, which ignited the 1st stage, causing the disaster.
"People died in horrific pain, essentially burning alive, but the country and the rest of the world practically never learnt anything about that terrible catastrophe and its heroes-victims," Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
"To this day, it is considered the most horrific (tragedy) in the history of space exploration."
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