The aircraft was launched from Giebelstadt Air Base and flew over the Volga at an altitude of more than 20 km, approached Kapustin Yar. The MiGs raised in alarm could only slightly damage the aircraft. After taking a photo of the site, the Canberra crossed the Caspian Sea and landed in Tabriz, Iran. As a result of the flight, photographs of secret objects at the site were obtained. The success of the operation gave impetus to the development of satellite and aerial photography programs of military facilities in the USSR and other socialist countries. Nuclear tests and satellite launches According to open data, since the 1950s, at least 11 nuclear explosions have been conducted at the Kapustin Yar test site (between altitudes of 300 m and 5.5 km), the total capacity of which is approximately 65 times the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. From 1957 to 1961, five low-yield (10–40 kilotons) atmospheric nuclear tests were performed over the site. In addition to nuclear tests, 24,000 guided missiles were exploded in Kapustin Yar, 177 samples of military equipment were tested, and 619 RSD-10 Pioneer missiles were destroyed. On 20 May 1960, the Training Center of the Rocket Forces of the Ground Forces was established on the territory of the State Landfill. The Center was tasked with creating combat coherence of missile troops, training and retraining rocket specialists, and creating regulatory documents for all-round missile combat activities troops of the Ground Forces. On 16 March 1962, Kapustin Yar became a cosmodrome with the launch of the Kosmos 1 satellite. Subsequently, small research satellites were launched from Kapustin Yar on light Kosmos rockets. In subsequent years, many short- and medium-range missiles, cruise missiles, complexes, and air defense missiles were tested at the test site. Recent years On 8 January 1992, during a trip to Saratov Oblast, President Boris Yeltsin made a statement on the issue of the restoration of the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, proposing that Soviet Germans move to Kapustin Yar instead of their legitimate territory: "...and let this land, which is filled with shells, may they cultivate it... There may be some such region in some future and there will be, or there may be some such national Volga region Germans, but only when there will be 90 percent of Germans". In 1994, the 4 GPC Russian Ministry of Defense entered the test site Air Defense Forces. In October