Why has the Soviet Union never been to the Moon?

With the N1 moon rocket, the Soviet Union tried but failed.

Welcome to Apollo Week, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's mission, we will talk about the meaning of this event at the moment as well as the role of contributing to the future of the field of exploration. space.

On July 3, 1969, just 17 days before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon, the Soviet Union fired its moon missile for the second time, called N1.

There has been no official announcement about this secret mission, but in times of crossing the Soviet test area in Tyuratam (Kazakhstan), US spy satellites have glimpsed one of the rocket's two launchers. The moon is completely destroyed.

At that time, the Soviet Union did not know that the hope for the moon also ended on the launch pad since 1969.

No chance

Yuri Gagarin and Sergei Korolev.

The story of Soviet N1 missiles and the Soviet big moon conquest project is still a mystery. Historians still debate why and how the Soviet space program suddenly lagged behind in the race to the moon, as well as how far the Soviet Union is being abandoned since Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the moon.

The truth is that none of these factors completely collapsed the Soviet moon program . The fact that the Kremlin overslept on victory after Sputnik and Gagarin's race to Earth orbit certainly contributed a part. And internal rivalry between Soviet space program leaders Serge Sergei Korolev, Valentin Glushko and Vladimir Chelomei did not help things progress.

However, as early as April 1961, US policymakers pointed out that the exploration of the moon was something that the United States was capable of achieving before the Soviet Union, simply thanks to the superiority of the economy. economy and technology of this country.

In addition, Soviet military aid for civilian space programs and missiles is quite frugal and it is clear that Soviet engineers had no chance of defeating NASA in conquering the moon.

The story is going on

Even half a century after the Apollo event, we still see the great and multifaceted efforts of the Soviet Union to bring people to the Moon.

In 2015 alone, the successor of the OKB-1 design department developed the giant N1 rocket, which demonstrated the efforts of the Soviet moon exploration program, reminiscent of the journey to design the Apollo project. .

Documents from April 1963 showed that Soviet engineers only completed the analysis of 26 scenarios for the moon exploration and narrowing into 4 different architectures, still needing more detailed research. Before you can choose the final plan.

Meanwhile, in mid-1962, the father of the Apollo project prioritized the moon as the main factor for the flight scenario, thus paving the way for the rapid development of Saturn V missiles for Apollo mission.

Even at the stage of the project - when the Kremlin did not need serious investments in money and material, Soviet engineers were one year behind the US and then continued to be left behind.

Controversies over fuel use, rocket design as well as other strategic disagreements also make things complicated and delay the Soviet moon program. Only in 1964 did Soviet engineers have the political progress needed to participate in the race to the moon, but it was too late.

For the next four years, numerous technical problems and error tests continue to widen the gap between Apollo and the opponent from the Soviet Union.

Time for building

Figure of moon missile N1

At the beginning of production, the Soviet Union also experienced geographical disadvantages. For example, the launch site at Tyuratam is located away from the seaport, which means the assembly of launchers for moon missiles must be transferred to the arid savannah of Kazakhstan, and carry many workers.

Finally, the obstacle to Kremlin's lunar conquest efforts comes from the N1 rocket's main propulsion system. Initially, there were many different plans to equip N1's thrust motor to 600 tons. However, the lack of time and essential machinery forced designers to use smaller engines of 150 tons. This means that all 24 engines will have to work correctly to lift the missiles off the platform.

The construction of an enlarged facility allows engineers to adjust the abolished ground engine cluster to save time and money. Therefore, when the engines are completely new for the first time, they must function as in real flight.

The Lunik 1 lunar lander is prepared for the Soviet moon subjugation program but has never had a chance to use it.

Failure

During the first launch on February 21, 1969, the spacecraft was broken after flying 1 minute 8 seconds due to a motor system error. The project leaders were disappointed but not discouraged - no one was killed, the launch pad was still intact and the rocket actually showed its flying ability (at least at a height of 30 km).

Indeed, many Soviet veterans in the N1 project survived the failures of so many previous missiles that this was no longer surprising. Therefore, the Soviets continued to advance to the second N1 as soon as possible.

The second N1 missile, called 5L, was completed in the summer of 1969, after Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 completed rehearsals to land on the moon - America's victory appeared before it. When the sixth Saturn V is scheduled to carry out the Apollo 11 mission being inspected at Cape Canaveral, the second N1 spacecraft arrived at the launch pad.

The N1 5L rocket exploded on the night of July 3 to July 4, 1969.

When N1 reaches a height of about 100 meters, only 10.5 seconds after being launched, some bright pieces of its tail fall off. The rocket then seemed to freeze in midair and began to tilt to one side. At the top of the missile, the emergency escape engines fire out and pull in the enclosed compartment, that is, carry the crew of two into darkness. The flight control system was paralyzed due to the engine explosion, which resulted in a massive missile that could not be controlled by itself, then fell back to the launch pad when it was full of fuel.

The big explosion almost completely erased half of the two launchers - the project took several years to complete. Some fragments that seem to be missile are found about 6 miles away from the launch pad and its windows are thrown into the building 4 miles away.

Close the project

The failure of the second launch sealed the Soviet fate in the race to the moon and asked whether a Soviet astronaut would ever set foot on the moon. Over the next few years, N1 made two more unsuccessful tests (though not badly damaged) before the Soviet government closed the project in June 1974.

The Soviet space program continued to make great contributions to human space exploration, including the famous Soyuz rocket. However the dream of a Soviet astronaut set foot on the moon died on the Kazakhstan launch pad in the summer of 69.