In the first weeks of his term, thanks largely to photos from the CORONA spy satellites and U-2 spy planes, President Kennedy discovered that the missile gap with the Soviets did not exist; in fact, the Americans had the advantage. Khrushchev’s claim that the USSR was churning out 250 ICBMs a year was a complete bluff. In reality, the Soviet missile program was struggling, and on October 24, 1960, it had suffered a tremendous blow with the explosion on the launch pad of an R-16, resulting in the deaths of many scientists and the Minister in charge of Strategic Missile Forces, Nedelin.
