Ballistic missile Timeline of Events

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Ballistic missile

A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the laws of orbital mechanics and ballistics...

Timeline of Events

1959

6.9.1959

The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

1960

7.16.1960

USS George Washington a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first ballistic missile while submerged.

10.24.1960

Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash