RUSSIA RELEASE RARE FOOTAGE OF TEST DETONATION OF TSAR BOMBA

A 30 minute documentary was released by Russian state-owned nuclear corporation, Rosatom, on 20 August, revealing rare footage of the 1961 test detonation of the most powerful weapon known to man – the Tsar Bombaatomic bomb.

The bomb was simply known as "Product 202", but after experiencing the bomb's colossal size and power, it earned the name "Tsar Bomba", which means the king of bombs.

The footage was released days before the 71st anniversary of the Soviet Union's first atom bomb test in 1949. The footage of the test detonation in 1961 shows how the Soviet Union detonated a 50-megaton nuclear weapon on a remote Arctic island.

It is recorded that the Tsar Bomba was about 1,325 times stronger that the Castle Bravo test which took place in 1952. That was recorded to be at almost 22 megatons, as well as the bomb that demolished the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 which was recorded to be 16 kilotons.

The documentary further shows how the huge bomb was being loaded onto a railcar for transport to the far north, and afterwards arrives under the guise of a typical boxcar at Olenya Air Base. It furthers shows how the aircraft was being loaded up with the needed test equipment.

The Tu-95 was at an altitude of roughly 34,000 feet when it dropped the bomb, which detonated about 13,000 feet above the ground to minimize radiation.

The bomb was recorded to reach as height of 6.2 miles over the island, and sent out a blast that was visible for 621 miles away on the mainland.