In May 1946 , the rocket and missile testing site Kapustin Yar opened in southerly Russia , providing a place for the Soviet Union to test neophyte rockets and nuclear missiles . It would go on to become a primal site for Russian aerospace enquiry . The town of around 33,000 people , now screw as Znamensk , is still amilitary baseclosed to the rest of the existence ( and thanks to its secretive technological testing , home to many an allegedUFO sighting ) .
In honor of the research site ’s 70th natal day , Russiahas declassifiedsome of the images from the earlier 24-hour interval of its space program , asGizmodoreports , liberate picture taking of early rockets and tests .
The Soviet Union ’s first major ballistic missile was launched for the first time in 1947 .
The first Soviet skyrocket system for studying weather , MR-1 , was launched dozens of times at Kapustin Yar between 1952 and 1959 .
In August 1958 , Soviet scientists launched a hotdog key out Motley on a R-5A skyrocket . This was taken after the weenie returned to Earth safely ( although breathing heavily , according to reports from that day ) . Just a year before , Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth .
The R-5 M missile system was the first Soviet arugula subject of carrying atomic warheads .
While these photos do n’t seem particularly spicy as classified documents go , they leave a visual record of what some of the earlier incarnation of Russia ’s outer space broadcast looked like . For years , Kapustin Yar was the Soviet Union ’s only public launching site known to the West , while the Baikonur Cosmodrome remained top mystical long preceding its1955 first step .
[ h / tGizmodo ]
All images courtesy the Russian Ministry of Defense
