Soviet crewed lunar programs
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The Soviet crewed lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land humans on the Moon, in competition with the United States Apollo program. The Soviet government publicly
Artist's depiction of TMK-MAVR on a Venus flyby
Zond (Soyuz 7K-L1) circumlunar spacecraft
Soyuz 7K-LOK rendering
LK (Lunniy korabl – "lunar craft" or lunar ship)
N1 (rocket)
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The N1 was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle of the Soviet space program intended for crewed travel to the Moon and beyond. All four launch attempts between 1969 and 1972 failed. Studied and designed
Soviet crewed lunar programs
…using Soyuz 7K-L1 (Zond) spacecraft launched with the Proton-K rocket, and a crewed lunar landing using Soyuz 7K-LOK and LK spacecraft launched with the N1 rocket. Following the dual American successes of the first crewed lunar orbit on 24–25 December 1968 (Apollo 8) and the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969…
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