2013 Russian Proto-M rocket explosion video shared as a failure of an Indian test missile - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 14, 2020
A video is being shared on social media claiming it to be the footage of Indian test missile explosion. In the video, it is seen that a space missile explodes minutes after its launch. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Indian test missile explosion.
Fact: Footage shared in the post shows Russian Proto-M rocket explosion in Khazakistan during the year 2013. The footage is old and not related to India. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On revere image search of screenshots in the video, similar visuals were found in a video posted by a YouTube user on ‘07 July 2013’. In the description of the video, it is mentioned as the footage of Russian Proto-M missile launch failure and explosion. The same video is posted on YouTube by another user with the same description. On searching for information from credible sources using these keywords, photos with the same visuals as in the video were found in an article published by ‘Electronic Products’ website on ‘10 July 2013’. In the article, it is mentioned as the visuals of Russian Proto-M rocket explosion at a spaceport in Kazakhstan. It is mentioned that the Proto-M rocket carrying three navigation satellites disintegrated itself and fell back to the Earth piece by piece in Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. It is reported that human error of putting sensors upside down caused this massive rocket explosion. The same visuals with a similar context were found in an article published by ‘Russia Today (RT)’ news network website.
Article published by ‘NASA’ space website about the Russian Proto-M rocket explosion in 2013 can be seen here.  Videos posted by ‘The Telegraph’ and ‘Euro news’ about the Russian Proto-M rocket explosion on YouTube can be seen here and here.
On ‘05 October 2020’, DRDO successfully tested Supersonic Missile assisted release of Torpedo, SMART. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in a tweet congratulated the DRDO officials and its stakeholders after the successful missile test. Earlier, when the videos related to the Russian Proto-M rocket explosion went viral as failed Indian missiles, FACTLY published fact-check articles about them. They can be seen here and here.
Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh has congratulated @DRDO_India and other stakeholders for the successful flight test of Supersonic Missile assisted release of Torpedo, SMART. pic.twitter.com/BLPjNGZ0eY
To sum it up, an old video related to the Russian Proto-M missile explosion is falsely shared as the failed Indian test missile.