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USSR had been collecting documents concerning UFOs in the so-called "Blue Folder"-KGB documents that were taken off the security list in October 1991 upon the inquiry of Russian cosmonaut Pavel Popovitch. Many copies of such documents are kept in the archival depository of the Russian Geographical Society's Ufological Committee
One of the documents from the "Blue Folder" describes a UFO encounter that happened in 1984 in Turkestan Military District. Anti-aircraft defense system near the city of Astrakhan "notched up" the object that flew along the Caspian Sea coast at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level and was heading to the frontier. It did not respond to the interrogations. Its shape resembled a sphere. Two fighters were scrambled, but all the attempts to shoot the UFO down failed.
Moreover, when the object was fired at, it descended down to one hundred meters above the ground to an altitude that made further firing by the fighters impossible. It is necessary to mention that despite the firing, the speed of the UFO did not change. During the flight the object passed above several military unit locations, and this made it possible to take photographs.
When the UFO approached the town of Krasnovodsk, a helicopter was scrambled to make an attempt to shoot the intruder down, but the UFO quickly climbed and hovered at the altitude that was inaccessible for the helicopter. After the pilots had spent all their ammunition the helicopter descended for landing, whereas the UFO sharply changed its course and headed toward the open sea. Soon after, the object disappeared from sight and was lost by radars.
The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster (so-called because Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin was killed) was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960, at Baikonur Cosmodrome during the development of the Soviet R-16 ICBM. As a prototype of the missile was being prepared for a test flight, it exploded on the launch pad when its second stage motors ignited prematurely, killing many military personnel, engineers, and technicians working on the project. The official death toll was 78, but estimates are as high as 150, with 120 being the generally accepted figure. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, news of it was covered up for many years and the Soviet government did not acknowledge the event until 1989. Strategic Rocket Forces Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, the commander of the R-16 development program, was among those killed in the explosion and fire.