The N1/L3 was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to enable crewed travel to the Moon and beyond, with studies beginning as early as 1959. Its first stage, Block A, was the most powerful rocket stage ever flown for over 50 years, with the record standing until Starship's first integrated flight test. However, each of the four attempts to launch an N1 failed in flight, with the second attempt resulting in the vehicle crashing back onto its launch pad shortly after liftoff. Adverse characteristics of the large cluster of thirty engines and its complex fuel and oxidizer feeder systems were not revealed earlier in development because static test firings had not been conducted.
Mockup at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in late 1967
N1 imaged by US KH-8 Gambit reconnaissance satellite, 19 September 1968
Scheme of the rocket stages (in Russian)
A comparison of the US Saturn V rocket (left) with the Soviet N1/L3. Note: human at bottom illustrates scale
The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had three stages, and was powered by liquid fuel. Flown from 1967 to 1973, it was used for nine crewed flights to the Moon, and to launch Skylab, the first American space station.
The launch of Apollo 11 on Saturn V SA-506, July 16, 1969
Saturn V testing vehicle and flight vehicle configurations
Von Braun with the F-1 engines of the Saturn V first stage at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.
All Saturn V launches, 1967–1973