The
Nedelin catastrophe or
Nedelin disaster was a
launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at Baikonur test range (of which
Baikonur Cosmodrome is a part), during the development of the Soviet
ICBM R-16. As a
prototype of the
missile was being prepared for a test flight, an explosion occurred when
second stage engines ignited accidentally, killing many military and technical personnel working on the preparations. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, news of it was suppressed for many years and the Soviet government did not acknowledge the event until 1989. The disaster is named after
Chief Marshal of Artillery
Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin , who was killed in the explosion. As commanding officer of the Soviet Union's
Strategic Rocket Forces, Nedelin was head of the
R-16 development program.