Dünyanın İlk Kıtalararası Nükleer Füzesi R-7 Semyorka

Video from the channel Ayhan Tarakcı about R-7 Semyorka, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:41. Video type: Documentary.

Turkish-language explainer documentary about the R-7 Semyorka, presented as the first intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead, and about its dual role as a Cold War weapon and space launcher.

The narrator starts from the nuclear arms race after 1945: long-range bombers did not guarantee reaching the target, and the two powers sought an unstoppable delivery vehicle building on German V-2 technology. According to the video, news about the American Atlas program led the Kremlin to back Sergei Korolev, whose personal goal was to reach space; the R-7 let him pursue both aims at once.

The video places the first flight on 15 May 1957, which ended with the rocket breaking apart. After a second failed attempt, success came on 21 August 1957, with a flight of about 6,000 km. On 4 October 1957 a modified R-7 put Sputnik into orbit, and the family later launched Yuri Gagarin and still lives on in the Soyuz. As a weapon, it describes it as weighing about 280 tonnes, using liquid fuel, RD-107 and RD-108 engines, a range of 8,800 km and a warhead of 5.5 tonnes. It also stresses its limits: expensive to maintain, impossible to hide from spy planes, and slow to prepare because of its liquid fuel.