est flights were to be started on 24 October 1960 at the Baikonur cosmodrom. However during preparation of a fueled rocket to resume a delayed launch there was an accidental engine ignition of the second stage. As a consequence of the ensuing explosion and fire 165 people were killed, including Strategic Rocket Forces Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin and many other high officials and members of the launch and design teams. In mid-October 1960, Nikita Khrushchev returned to Moscow from a bombastic appearance at the United Nations General Assembly where he was quoted as bragging that his "missiles were being turned out like sausages from a machine." It was especially ironic, therefore, that only a few days later, one of the few "sausages" that he actually had, R-16, exploded catastrophically as it was being prepared for firing. The incident was shrouded in mystery, and was first described in (not entirely correct) detail by James Oberg's books "Red Star in Orbit" and "Uncovering Soviet Disasters." Initially it was thought in the West that the disaster was associated with a failed attempt to launch a probe to Mars, and only subsequently was it understood to be a test of a new ICBM. An eyewitness described the scene of horror thirty years later: "... a flash of fire erupted from the second stage engine nozzle. The powerful jet immediately ruptured the oxidizer tank. Nitric acid gushed out onto the concrete. Both the rocket and the launch structures were engulfed in a firestorm. At that moment, the motion picture camera that was to photograph the launch was activated. The dispassionate film conveyed to us a frightful picture - people