YangelMikhail

In the twentieth century, one war replaced another. At the end of World War II, the United States, the Soviet Union and Germany came close to developing nuclear weapons. On July 16, 1945, the world’s first test was conducted by American scientists — they detonated a plutonium bomb Trinity at the test site in New Mexico. On August 29, 1949, an atomic bomb was detonated by the Soviet military at a test site in Kazakhstan. It became clear that if World War III broke out, it would be the nuclear one and then a “containment” strategy would take effect. The United States and the Soviet Union continued to increase their military strength, making it clear to each other that the slightest attempt of an attack would take an immediate and devastating reply. The prototype of the new weapon was the German ballistic missile “V–2” — V–2 (Vergeltungswaffe–2), used at the end of World–War–II. In the Soviet Union, Mikhail Yangel was one of those who led the development of such missiles.

Yangel began working for Sergei Korolev’s team on ballistic missiles that could carry a nuclear charge. But soon, in 1954, he was appointed as a chief engineer of the special design bureau (SCB–586) and Yangel led the team that began to develop new rockets on other fuels. The fact is that the R–7, the development of which was then led by Korolev, could be refuelled for no more than eight hours. Although the missile was the first intercontinental missile to destroy targets on other continents to retaliate, it was ill-suited. It took several hours to prepare for the launch.

The first missile of Yangel’s team, however, medium-range (2 080 km), was Р–12. Unlike the R–7, it could be refuelled in full combat readiness for a month. On June 22, 1957, it was successfully tested. Interestingly, approximately at the same time, R–7 passed the test. It successfully launched on August 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and hit a training target on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Although both rockets were adopted, Korolyov later modified the R–7 to conquer space and Yangel continued to work on the creation of new military missiles.

Yangel designed another medium-range missile, the R–14, and then an intercontinental missile with a maximum range of 13 000 kilometres, the R–16, which was on the same fuel. Within a few years, tests began on the R–36 orb missile, which could hit targets unattainable for intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was launched into orbit and it hit the target from there.

But in 1962, the R–12 medium-range missiles were enough to be one step closer to the start of nuclear war. The US military deployed PGM–19 Jupiter ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on the territory of the allies Turkey and Italy. In response, the Soviet military deployed R–12s in Cuba. Now the missiles could reach both the United States and the Soviet Union in ten minutes.When all the parties finally understood what they had done, they began to negotiate. At the cost of intense dialogue and a number of concessions, the missiles were removed and peace was maintained.

But there were other cases.

Back in 1960, the missiles were almost launched when the American radar in Greenland recorded the launch of Soviet missiles. In fact, it turned out that the rising moon suddenly reflected the radar waves, so the radar thought that something big was on the horizon, such as rockets.

The world was once again on the brink of nuclear war in 1980 when the computer of the American surveillance system at three o’clock in the morning reported that two hundred missiles were flying from the territory of the USSR in the direction of the United States. The order to strike back was to be given by the President. A duty officer called the White House to wake him up. That’s when they found out that one of the computer chips had failed. His replacement cost less than a dollar, as much as it would have cost the world if then-President Jimmy Carter had given the order, it’s hard to imagine...

Moreover, they say, once the same Jimmy Carter accidentally handed over his jacket to dry cleaner’s without taking out the codes for launching nuclear missiles and another president, Bill Clinton, lost them altogether...

Since the late 1940s, the world has been on the brink of nuclear war at least 22 times. Maybe leave that war and let’s go into space?