Soviet Moonshot

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This article deals only with preparations for manned flight to the Moon by the USSR. For the Moon research by Soviet automatic interplanetary stations see Luna program.

Details of the Soviet Moonshot were kept intensely secret until the arrival of glasnost. The plan was hindered by the death of Sergei Korolev in 1966 and the disaster of Soyuz 1 in 1967. Following the success of Project Apollo in 1969 materials and personnel were switched to other programmes and the whole project was cancelled in 1974.

[edit] History

LOK

Lander LK

Proton-K rocket with Zond (7K-L1) circumlunar spacecraft (Baikonur)

Although the Soviet leadership had made public pronouncements about landing a man on the Moon and establishing a lunar base as early as 1961, there was no apparent active planning. Korolev initially promoted the Soyuz 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 rocket. A competing mission was developed by Vladimir Chelomei to use a UR-500 rocket (it was later renamed to Proton rocket) to launch a cislunar orbiting flight. Chelomei's project had the lead until 1964 when a change of Soviet leadership swung behind Korolev. After Korolev was forced to abandon orbital assembly of a lunar vehicle, he planned to use his proposed heavy lift booster, the N-1, 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 as Project Apollo. A variant of the Soyuz craft, the LOK (Lunny Orbitalny Korabl), would carry a two-man crew atop the N-1 booster. Behind it would be the Lunnaya Kabina, or LK, mounted to a new rocket stage, the 'Block D'. Following the coast to the moon, one cosmonaut would spacewalk to the LK and enter it. The Block D engine would be used to place the two spacecraft into lunar orbit, the Soyuz would separate, and the Block D would burn one more time to send the LK towards the moon. After the Block D was discarded, the pilot would land the LK on the moon using its single engine. As originally planned, an earlier unmanned probe of the Luna programme would act as a beacon for the LK. After a day on the lunar suface the LK's engine would fire again using its landing leg structure as a launch pad. The LK and Soyuz would perform an automated docking in Lunar orbit and, after crew and material were transferred, the Soyuz's own engine would return them to the Earth.

In 1966 two cosmonaut training groups were formed. One group was commanded by Vladimir Komarov and included Yuri Gagarin, and was to prepare for qualification flights of the Soyuz in Earth orbit and a Proton launched cis-lunar mission. The second group was led by Alexei Leonov and concentrated on the landing mission. As a result, Leonov has the strongest claim to have been the Soviet's 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 and Soyuz 5 joint mission in early 1969 tested the other key mission elements.

The success of Project Apollo in putting American astronauts on the Moon in 1969 put the United States ahead in the Space race, and that was the deathblow to the Soviet moon program, although plans were drawn up 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, 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 [1][2]

The LK was flown twice unmanned in 1971 in earth orbit and proved its design. A replica of it now stands in Euro Disney.