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The night the Soviet moon rocket exploded, the N1 disaster that nearly changed the space race
In July 1969, just weeks before Apollo 11, the Soviet Union lost its giant N1 moon rocket in one of the most powerful non nuclear explosions in history. Kept secret for decades, the disaster revealed how close and how fragile the Moon Race truly was.
Here’s a look at space accidents that have affected astronauts or other staff related to spaceflight. Accidents that involved unmanned spacecraft are not included. Timeline October 24, 1960 – The first space-related fatalities occur when a rocket explodes at the Soviet Union’s Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan,