Ignition Protocol / Programme
The Soviet lunar programme
The same race, run by an organisation that never settled who was running it. The failure was organisational before it was technical, and the fact that Moscow denied the programme existed until 1990 is the clearest evidence of that.
The N1 and L3 effort was ordered in August 1964 to land a Soviet crew on the Moon, three years after the American commitment, with less money and with the work split between rival design bureaus instead of concentrated in one. Four N1 launches between 1969 and 1972 all failed, the programme was cancelled in May 1974, and its existence was denied until glasnost let the files be published in 1990.
How it went
Decree 655-268 of August 1964 finally ordered a landing, but divided the work between Korolev at OKB-1 and Chelomei, so the circumlunar flights flew on one bureau capsule and another bureau rocket.
The N1 first stage carried thirty NK-15 engines that were never once static fired as a complete cluster, because an engine valve could not be reopened after it had shut.
Vehicle 3L failed 68.7 seconds after liftoff on 21 February 1969, and on 3 July 1969 vehicle 5L fell back onto its pad and destroyed the launch complex.
Two more attempts, in June 1971 and on 23 November 1972, broke up inside the first two minutes, by which point the Americans had landed five crews on the Moon.
Glushko replaced Mishin in May 1974 and cancelled the N1 at once; the hardware was scrapped and the whole effort stayed officially unadmitted for sixteen more years.
What it flew
What it cost, what it got
No crewed lunar flight and four launch failures, from a programme that had the engineers to do it and never had the single line of authority that Apollo had. Zond 5 sent two tortoises around the Moon and back in September 1968, a crewed circumlunar attempt was pencilled in for 8 December 1968, and the decision was never taken.
Sources
- N1 moon rocketRussianSpaceWeb
- Soviet crewed lunar programsWikipedia
- N1 rocketWikipedia