Russia Just Declassified The Footage of the World’s Largest Nuke Ever

In 1961, the Soviet Union exploded the biggest nuclear bomb the world has ever seen. The RDS-220, or Tsar Bomba, was a hydrogen bomb that exploded with the force of more than 50 million tons of TNT. To this day, it is the largest man-made explosion in the history of the world. Russia just declassified 40 minutes of previously unseen footage of the Tsar Bomba test and posted it on YouTube.

At 26 feet long and about 7 feet tall, Tsar Bomba was so big that a specially designed Tu-95V Soviet bomber had some of its fuel tanks and bomb bay doors taken out to get it inside. The bomber released Tsar Bomba off the coast of Severny Island near the Arctic Ocean. It exploded 4,000 meters above the ground.

The shock wave gripped the Tu-95V even though it was 75 miles away. It dropped in the sky, but the pilot regains control and landed the plane safely. The shock wave of the blast was so strong it stopped the resulting five-mile wide fireball from touching the ground. The blast was visible from 620 miles away. The mushroom cloud got as high as 42 miles into the air, 7 times higher than Mount Everest. People in Norway and Finland reported feeling a blast that smashed windows.