NUKES

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65 years ago, on October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the AN602 "Tsar Bomba", the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever created and tested. The bomb with a yield of 58 megatons was dropped from a Tu-95 bomber and detonated at an altitude of 4 km over the Novaya Zemlya.

«Blanca» underground nuclear test, 22 kilotons, tunnel -254 m, Nevada Test Site, 7:00 a.m. October 30, 1958. UCRL test of an alternate W-47 primary in a thermonuclear system mockup.

«Buster Charlie» nuclear test, 14 kilotons, 345 m burst height, Nevada Test Site, 7:00 a.m. October 30, 1951. The test device, designated «PC», was a Mk 4 bomb assembly of a composite uranium-plutonium core.

The first Soviet high-altitude nuclear test «K-1» with a yield of 1.2 kilotons, was conducted at an altitude of 150 km at the Sary Shagan test site in the Kazakh SSR on October 27, 1961.

On October 27, 1966, China launched the DF-2 ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead (12 kilotons) for the first time in its history. The DF-2 flew 894 km and exploded at an altitude of 570 m at the Lob Nor test site.

«Bluegill Triple Prime» nuclear test, 410 kilotons, Johnston Atoll, 23:59, October 25, 1962. Launched by a Thor missile, a W50 thermonuclear warhead was detonated at an altitude of 48 km.

Project Salmon was a nuclear test detection research experiment (Vela Uniform). The 5.3 kt device tamped in place at the bottom of a 822-meter (2,700 feet) hole in the Tatum Salt Dome near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was detonated on October 22, 1964.

«Socorro» nuclear test, 6 kilotons, 440 m burst height (balloon), Nevada test site, October 22, 1958. Successful test of the XW-54 nuclear warhead, which was only 38 cm long, 29 cm in diameter and weighed 26 kg.

On October 19, 1962, at 22:30, an XM-33 Strypi rocket launched a 10 kt nuclear warhead that detonated at an altitude of 147 km, 65 km downrange from Johnston Island.

RDS-3 nuclear test, 42 kilotons, air burst 380 m, Semipalatinsk test site, 18 October 1951. It was the first Soviet atomic bomb dropped from an airplane.

On October 16, 1964, China conducted its first nuclear test. A uranium-235 fission implosion device, with a yield of 22 kilotons was detonated on a 102-m tower at the Lop Nur test site.

Disassembled view of a B-61 nuclear bomb showing some parts.

«Kite» nuclear test, 3 kilotons, air burst 150 m, Australia, October 11, 1956. This was Britain's first air drop test. It tested a Blue Danube bomb dropped from an RAF Valiant B1 bomber.

On October 11, 1961, the USSR conducted its first underground nuclear test. The device with a yield of 1 kiloton was detonated in a tunnel at a depth of 125 m in the Degelen Mountain (Kazakh SSR).

British nuclear test «Taranaki», 26.6 kilotons, air burst 300 m (balloon), Australia, October 9, 1957. Test of a primary for a megaton range thermonuclear device.

«Mora» nuclear test, 2 kilotons, air burst 457 m, Nevada test site, September 29, 1958.

«Charleston» nuclear test, 12 kilotons, air burst (balloon) 460 m, Nevada Test Site, 6:00 a.m. September 28, 1957.

«One Tree» British nuclear test, 15 kilotons, 31 m tower, Australia, 27 September 1956.

«Newton» nuclear test, 12 kilotons, air burst (balloon) 457 m, Nevada test site, 5:50 a.m. September 16, 1957. LASL test of XW-31 variant, boosted primary in thermonuclear system mockup.