Both pads were damaged by explosions in the 1980s . At 16:01 GMT on 18 March 1980 , 48 people were killed when a Vostok-2M exploded during fueling operations at Pad 4 . The disaster injured dozens more , while damaging the pad so severely that it was not used again until 1984 . On 18 June 1987 , a Soyuz-U rocket exploded at liftoff on Pad 3 . Both were rebuilt , and are in service as of 2009
were killed
1980 Plesetsk launch pad disaster
Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43