UR-500 / [PROTON]
The Proton SL-9 is a two stage launch vehicle ICBM concept, the precursor to the four stage SL-12 Proton-Zond manned lunar circumnavigation spacecraft prototype and later SL-12 three stage Proton-Salyut/Mir/ISS launch vehicle.
In August of 1961, Premier Nikita Khrushchev openly threatened the West with a new and terrifying weapon, the orbital H-bomb. "You do not have 50- or 100-megaton bombs, we have bombs more powerful than 100 megatons. We placed Gagarin and Titov in space, and we can replace them with other loads that can be directed to any place on Earth." Although the US had hypothesized orbital bombs, this was the first public indication that the Soviets were actively pursuing this course of action. Shortly after the Khrushchev statement, US analysis greatly qualified and diminished the threat of these systems posed to the US.
