Soviet Moonshot

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Soviet Moonshot

"Moonshot" redirects here. For the Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie is an Academy Award-winning Canada First Nations musician, composer, visual artist, pacifism, educator and social activist....
album, see Moonshot (album)
Moonshot (album)

Moonshot, released in 1972, was the eighth album by Buffy Sainte-Marie and her penultimate album for Vanguard Records.After the very modest success of her previous album She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina, Vanguard again teamed Sainte-Marie with renowned pop session musicians in its effort to improve sales and the amount of money she...
.

Details of the Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
Moonshot (N1/L3) were kept intensely secret until the arrival of glasnost
Glasnost

was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
. The plan was hindered by the death of Sergei Korolev in 1966 and the disaster of Soyuz 1

Soyuz 1

Soyuz 1 was part of the Soviet Union's space program and was launched into orbit on April 23, 1967, carrying a single astronaut, Colonel Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov, who was killed when the spacecraft crashed during its return to Earth....
in 1967.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Soviet Moonshot'

Start a new discussion about 'Soviet Moonshot'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Details of the Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
Moonshot (N1/L3) were kept intensely secret until the arrival of glasnost
Glasnost

was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
. The plan was hindered by the death of Sergei Korolev in 1966 and the disaster of Soyuz 1

Soyuz 1

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961?1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions....
in 1969, materials and personnel were switched to other programs. The entire project was cancelled in 1974.

Korolev's Soyuz concept

Although the Soviet leadership had made public pronouncements about landing a man on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
and establishing a lunar base as early as 1961, there was no apparent active planning. Korolev initially promoted the Soyuz

Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia....
A-B-C circumlunar complex

Soyuz A

Sergei Korolev initially promoted the Soyuz A-B-C circumlunar complex concept in which a two-man craft Soyuz-A 7K would rendezvous with other components in Earth orbit to assemble a lunar excursion vehicle, the components being delivered by the proven R-7 rocket....
concept in which a two-man craft would rendezvous with other components in Earth orbit to assemble a lunar excursion vehicle, the components being delivered by the proven R-7

R-7 Semyorka

The R-7 Semyorka was the world's first true intercontinental ballistic missile and was deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War from 1959 to 1968....
rocket.

A competing mission was developed by Vladimir Chelomei

Vladimir Chelomei

File:Vladimir Chelomei.jpgVladimir Nikolayevich Chelomei was a Soviet Union mechanics scientist and rocket engineer....
to use a UR-500 rocket (later renamed the Proton rocket

Proton rocket

The Proton rocket is a rocket used in an expendable launch system for both commercial and Russian government launches. The first Proton was launched in 1965 and the launch system is still in use as of 2009, which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight....
) to launch a cislunar orbiting flight.

Chelomei's project had the lead until 1964 when a change of Soviet leadership swung behind Korolev.

Korolev's N1-L3 plan

After Korolev was forced to abandon orbital assembly of a lunar vehicle, he planned to use his proposed heavy lift booster, the N-1 rocket, to deliver a lunar vehicle in a single launch. The problem was that the N-1 as originally designed did not have enough power to send a manned landing mission. Korolev carried on for a year with the hope of improvising a solution but his death ended this.

Korolev's final plan for a manned landing adopted the same method of lunar orbit rendezvous

Lunar orbit rendezvous

Lunar orbit rendezvous was the method used by the Project Apollo for human spaceflight to the Moon. In an LOR mission a main spacecraft and a smaller Lunar Module travel together into lunar orbit ....
as Project Apollo

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961?1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions....
.

LOK Command Ship - Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl (L3)

A variant of the Soyuz craft, the Soyuz 7K-L3

Soyuz 7K-L3

The Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK was designed to launch men from Earth to circle the moon and developed in parallel to the Soyuz_7K-L1. The LOK -Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl would carry two cosmonauts into orbit around the Moon, acting as "mother" spacecraft for the LK Lander, which would land one member of the crew to the surface....
"Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl" (LOK) Command Ship or L3, would carry a two-man crew atop a single three-stage N-1 booster.

A fourth stage pushed the LOK, the Block D

Block D

Block D is the upper stage of USSR/Russia heavy expendable launch systems, used for the N1 rocket, Proton rocket and Zenit rocket. There were plans to use it for some other rockets as well ....
fifth stage and the 'LK' Lander (not to be confused with Chelomei's LK circumlunar capsule) toward the moon. The Block D fifth stage engine slowed the 'LOK' and 'LK' into lunar orbit.

LK Lander - Lunniy Korabl

Following the coast to the moon, one cosmonaut would spacewalk from the LOK to the "Lunniy Korabl" (LK) lander

LK Lander

The LK was a Soviet lunar lander and counterpart of the United States Lunar Module . The LK was to have landed a single Soviet citizen on the Moon before the Americans, winning the moon race....
and enter it.

He would then separate the Block D stage and LK from the LOK and descend towards the moon using the Block D's engine.

Lunar landing

After Block D exhausted its fuel, the 'LK' lander was to separate and complete landing using its own engine. As originally planned, an earlier unmanned probe of the Luna programme would act as a beacon for the LK. The lone cosmonaut would collect moonrocks and hoist the Soviet flag.

Earth return

After a day on the lunar suface the LK's engine would fire again using its landing leg structure as a launch pad. To save weight, the engine used for landing would also blast the LK back to lunar orbit for an automated docking with the LOK. The cosmonaut then would spacewalk back to the LOK carrying the moon rock samples, with the LK being cast off. After this, the LOK would fire its rocket for the return to Earth.

Launch schedules

As of 1967, the L1/L3 launch schedules were:

L1

2P -Develop Block D stage -Feb or Mar 67

3P -same -Mar 67

4L -Unmanned lunar flyby -May 67

5L -Unmanned lunar flyby -Jun 67

6L -Manned lunar flyby -Jun or Jul 67

7L&8L -Manned lunar flybys -Aug 67

9L&10L -Manned lunar flybys -Sep 67

11L&12L -Manned lunar flybys -Oct 67

13L -Reserve spacecraft

3L -Develop LV & Blocks G&D -Sep 67

4L -Reserve

5L -LOK/LK unmanned -Dec 67

6L -LOK/LK unmanned -Feb 68

7L -Manned LOK/unmanned LK -Apr 68

8L -Manned LOK/unmanned LK -Jun 68

9L -Piloted LOK/unmanned LK with LK landing on Moon -Aug 68

10L -First men land on moon -Sep 68

11L -Reserve

12L -Reserve

Cosmonauts

In 1966 two cosmonaut training groups were formed.

One group was commanded by Vladimir Komarov and included Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet Union cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth....
, and was to prepare for qualification flights of the Soyuz in Earth orbit and a Proton launched cis-lunar mission (Gagarin, Nikolayev, Komarov, Bykovskiy, Khrunov; Engineer-Cosmonauts: Gorbatko, Grechko, Sevastyanov, Kubasov, Volkov).

The second group was led by Alexei Leonov and concentrated on the landing mission (Commanders: Leonov, Popovich, Belyayev, Volynov, Klimuk; Engineer-cosmonauts: Makarov, Voronov, Rukavishnikov, Artyukhin). As a result, Leonov has the strongest claim to have been the Soviets' first choice for first man on the moon.

After Komarov's death in Soyuz 1 in 1967, Gagarin was taken out of training and the groups were restructured. Despite the Soyuz 1 setback, the Soviets successfully rehearsed the automated docking of two unmanned Soyuz craft in Earth orbit in 1968 and with the manned Soyuz 4

Soyuz 4

Soyuz 4 was launched on January 14, 1969. On board was cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members from that spacecraft, and return to Earth....
and Soyuz 5

Soyuz 5

Soyuz 5 was a Soyuz spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on January 15, 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit....
joint mission in early 1969 tested the other key mission elements.

A total of 18 missions were related to the N1-L3 project. For details, see the table at the bottom of the article.

Cancellation

The success of Project Apollo

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961?1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions....
in putting American astronauts on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
in 1969, removed the justification for the Soviet moon program, although planning continued until the early 1970s. Four N-1 launches were attempted but all were failures, despite engineering improvements after each crash. The second launch attempt on 3 July 1969, just 13 days prior to the launch of Apollo 11

Apollo 11

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Apollo program and the third human voyage to the Moon....
, was a catastrophic failure which destroyed both the rocket and the launch complex. Subsequently, the Soviets decided to concentrate on the development of space stations, gaining several firsts in the process, and also a long-term Mars program, which continues to the present day.

The LK was flown unmanned once in 1970, and twice in 1971 in Earth orbit and proved its design. A replica of it now stands in Disneyland Resort Paris

Disneyland Resort Paris

Disneyland Resort Paris is a holiday and recreation resort in Marne-la-Vall?e, a new town in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The complex is located from the Kilometre Zero and lies for the most part on the territory of the communes of France of Chessy, Seine-et-Marne....
.

Soviet Moonshot

Korolev's Soyuz concept

Korolev's N1-L3 plan

LOK Command Ship - Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl (L3)

LK Lander - Lunniy Korabl

Lunar landing

Earth return

Launch schedules

Cosmonauts

Cancellation

Gallery

See also

External links