On March 18, 1980, a Soviet rocket exploded on the launchpad and killed 48 people.
The Vostok-2M rocket was about to launch a new spy satellite called Tselina-D. Military technicians were working to fuel the rocket on the launchpad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a top-secret spaceport a few hundred miles north of Moscow. It wasn't until three years after the explosion happened that the Soviets admitted that this secret spaceport existed. They continued to keep the deadly explosion a secret until 1989. State officials blamed the explosion on human error. But a later investigation determined the cause to be a design flaw with the rocket.
The Vostok-2M rocket was about to launch a new spy satellite called Tselina-D. Military technicians were working to fuel the rocket on the launchpad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a top-secret spaceport a few hundred miles north of Moscow. It wasn't until three years after the explosion happened that the Soviets admitted that this secret spaceport existed. They continued to keep the deadly explosion a secret until 1989. State officials blamed the explosion on human error. But a later investigation determined the cause to be a design flaw with the rocket.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04On March 18th, 1980, a Soviet rocket exploded on the launch pad and killed 48 people.
00:10The Vostok 2M rocket was about to launch a new spy satellite called Selina-D.
00:14Military technicians were working to fuel the rocket on the launch pad at the Plosetsk Cosmodrome,
00:19a top-secret spaceport a few hundred miles north of Moscow.
00:22It wasn't until three years after the explosion happened that the Soviets admitted that this secret spaceport existed.
00:27They continued to keep the deadly explosion a secret until 1989.
00:32State officials blamed the explosion on human error,
00:35but a later investigation determined the cause to be a design flaw with the rocket.
00:39And that's what happened on this day in space.