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Baikonur Cosmodrome
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Kazakhstan
💡 On 24 October 1960, a launch-pad accident struck the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR during preparations for the first test flight of the prototype R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile. The rocket's second-stage engine ignited while it was on the pad, causing a fire among the personnel gathered around it; Soviet authorities kept the disaster secret for decades, and a 1994 commission later put the death toll at 78.