November-class submarine Komsomol" was first underway under nuclear power on 4 July 1958 and became also the first Soviet submarine to reach the North Pole in July 1962, 4 years after the USS "Nautilus". Project 627 had much better performance specifications (for example, submerged speed and depth) than the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine USS "Nautilus". The first commander of "K-3" was Captain 1st Rank L.G. Osipenko (future admiral and Hero of the Soviet Union). All other Novembers except "K-3" belonged to modified project – project 627A. The main visual differences of project 627A were a bow sonar dome in the keel
North Pole 1928, in the airship "Italia". The "Italia" crashed on its return from the Pole, with the loss of half the crew. In May 1937 the world's first North Pole ice station, North Pole-1, was established by Soviet scientists by air 20 kilometres (13 mi) from the North Pole. The expedition members: oceanographer Pyotr Shirshov, meteorologist Yevgeny Fyodorov, radio operator Ernst Krenkel, and the leader Ivan Papanin conducted scientific research at the station for the next nine months. By 19 February 1938, when the group was picked up by the ice breakers "Taimyr" and "Murman", their station had drifted 2850 km