Cuban Missile Crisis the blockade from 6:45 pm EST on November 20, 1962. At the time when the Kennedy administration thought that the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved, nuclear tactical rockets stayed in Cuba since they were not part of the Kennedy-Khrushchev understandings and the Americans did not know about them. The Soviets changed their minds, fearing possible future Cuban militant steps, and on November 22, 1962, Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union Anastas Mikoyan told Castro that the rockets with the nuclear warheads were being removed as well. In his negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, Robert Kennedy informally proposed that
R-16 (missile) rocket exploded on the pad killing over 100 personnel. After decades of coverup, the government finally revealed this incident, referred to as the Nedelin catastrophe. After the delays associated with the deaths of most people working on the project, the first flight of the missile took place on 2 February 1961. Initial operational capability was achieved on 1 November 1961. The missile continued to serve until 1976, with maximum deployment numbers reached in 1965 with 202 missiles deployed. The Soviets had fewer than 50 of these missiles deployed in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is possible that only