Word: semyorka
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Several models of Korolyov's first test rocket, called Semyorka (Number 7) exploded. Khrushchev reveals that in one such incident in October 1960, Mikhail Yangel, a colleague of Korolyov's, survived only because he stepped into a special insulated smoking room to have a cigarette. Dozens of other witnesses, including Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, then commander in chief of Soviet missile forces, were burned to death. Despite these early failures, Khrushchev notes that "thanks to Comrade Korolyov and his associates, we now had a rocket that could carry a nuclear warhead." The Semyorka, Khrushchev adds, paved the Soviet road...
Some of my conversations with Comrade Korolyov made me worry that if war ever came, our enemy might be able to destroy our Semyorka before we could get it into the air. The rocket was fired from a launching pad which looked like a huge tabletop and could easily be detected by reconnaissance planes or satellites in orbit around the earth...
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