Soviet lunar program. Secret expedition of the USSR to the moon - photo archive Lunar descent module of the USSR history of creation

In reality, the Americans did not land on the Moon and the entire Apollo program was a hoax, conceived with the aim of creating the image of a great state in the United States. The lecturer showed an American film that debunks the legend of astronauts landing on the Moon. The following contradictions seemed especially convincing.

The American flag on the Moon, where there is no atmosphere, flutters as if it were being blown by air currents.

Look at the photo purportedly taken by the Apollo 11 astronauts. Armstrong and Aldrin are the same height, and the shadow of one of the astronauts is one and a half times longer than the other. They were probably illuminated from above by a spotlight, which is why the shadows turned out to be of different lengths, like those from a street lamp. And by the way, who took this photo? After all, both astronauts are in the frame at once.

There are many other technical inconsistencies: the image in the frame does not twitch, the size of the shadow does not coincide with the position of the Sun, etc. The lecturer argued that historical footage of astronauts walking on the Moon was taken in Hollywood, and the corner light reflectors, which were used to determine the parameters of the false landing party, were simply dropped from automatic probes. In 1969-1972, Americans flew to the Moon 7 times. With the exception of the crash flight of Apollo 13, 6 expeditions were successful. Each time, one astronaut remained in orbit, and two landed on the Moon. Each stage of these flights was recorded literally minute by minute, and detailed documentation and logbooks were preserved. More than 380 kg of lunar rock was brought to Earth, 13 thousand photographs were taken, a seismograph and other instruments were installed on the Moon, equipment, a lunar vehicle and a battery-powered self-propelled gun were tested. Moreover, the astronauts found and delivered to Earth a camera from a probe that visited the Moon two years before man. In the laboratory, this camera was used to discover terrestrial streptococcus bacteria that had survived in outer space. This discovery turned out to be important for understanding the fundamental laws of survival and distribution of living matter in the Universe. In America there is a debate about whether Americans have been to the moon. In principle, nothing surprising, because in Spain, after the return of Columbus, there were also disputes about what new continents he discovered. Such disputes are inevitable until the new land becomes easily accessible to everyone. But only a dozen people have walked on the moon so far. Despite the fact that the USSR did not broadcast live broadcast of Neil Armstrong's first walk on the Moon, our and American scientists collaborated closely in processing the scientific results of the Apollo expeditions. The USSR had a rich photo archive, which was compiled from the results of several flights of the Luna spacecraft, as well as samples of lunar soil. Thus, the Americans had to come to an agreement not only with Hollywood, but also with the USSR, competition with which could become the only argument in favor of the hoax. It should be added that Hollywood at that time had not even heard of computer graphics and simply did not have the technology to fool the whole world. As for the footprint of astronaut Conrad, as they explained to us at the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where samples of lunar soil are being studied, since the lunar regolith is a very loose rock, the imprint must have remained. There is no air on the Moon, the regolith there does not gather dust and does not fly apart, as on Earth, where it immediately turns into swirling dust underfoot. And the flag behaved as it should. Although there is no and cannot be wind on the Moon, any material (wires, cables, cords) that the astronauts deployed, in low gravity conditions under the influence of an imbalance of forces, wriggled for several seconds and then froze. Finally, the strange static nature of the image is explained by the fact that the astronauts did not hold the camera in their hands, like earthly operators, but mounted it on tripods screwed to their chests. The US lunar program could not be a spectacle also because a very high price was paid for it. One of the Apollo crews died during training on Earth, and the Apollo 13 crew returned to Earth without reaching the Moon. And NASA's financial costs of the Apollo program in the amount of $25 billion were subject to repeated verification by numerous audit commissions. The version that the Americans did not fly to the moon is not a sensation of the first freshness. Now in America an even more exotic legend is growing by leaps and bounds. It turns out (and there is documentary evidence of this) that man did go to the moon. But this was not an American man. And the Soviet one! The USSR sent cosmonauts to the Moon to service its numerous lunar rovers and instruments. But the USSR did not tell the world anything about these expeditions, because they were suicide cosmonauts. They were not destined to return to their Soviet homeland. American astronauts allegedly saw the skeletons of these nameless heroes on the Moon. According to the explanation of specialists from the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where cosmonauts are trained for flight, approximately the same changes will occur with a corpse in a spacesuit on the Moon as with an old can of canned food. There are no decay bacteria on the Moon, and therefore an astronaut cannot turn into a skeleton even if he wants to.

Permission and resources to continue modification of the Vostok and Voskhod type spacecraft and only preliminary preparation of lunar manned projects, including a flyby of the Moon assembled in orbit by the 7K-9K-11K complex of the early Soyuz project.

Only a few years later, with a great delay relative to the United States, on August 3, a government decree approved the lunar manned program of the USSR and real large-scale work began on two parallel manned programs: a flyby of the Moon (“Proton” - “Zond/L1)” by 1967 and landing on it (N-1 - L3) by 1968 with the start of flight design tests in 1966.

The resolution contained a complete list of all participants in the development of systems for L1 and L3 and prescribed multilateral work in which, it seemed, “no one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten.” Nevertheless, questions about the detailed distribution of work - who issues requirements to whom and for which systems - were debated and the answers to them were signed with private decisions and protocols for another three years.

The design of the L1 and L3 ships and the N-1 rocket units, as well as the development of schemes for expeditions to and to the Moon, began even before the adoption of the program - in 1963. Over the next two years, working drawings of the N-1 rocket were released and the first preliminary designs of lunar spacecraft appeared.

Dozens of government officials needed to understand the production and technical scale of the entire lunar program, determine the full volume of capital construction and make preliminary calculations of the total necessary costs. The economy of those years did not allow particularly accurate calculations. Nevertheless, experienced Gosplan economists, with whom Korolev usually consulted, warned that the real figures for the necessary costs would not pass through the Ministry of Finance and Gosplan. Not to mention the costs of a nuclear missile shield, it was necessary to find funds for new proposals for heavy missiles from Chelomey and Yangel.

The calculations submitted to the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers were underestimated. Officials of the State Committee for Defense Equipment, the Council of Ministers and the State Planning Committee made it clear that the documents should not intimidate the Politburo with many billions. There should be no extra costs in the project estimate. Chelomey and Yangel began to prove that their projects were much cheaper. Pashkov, highly knowledgeable in the policies of the State Planning Committee, advised: “develop production with at least four carriers per year, involve everyone who is needed in the work, but according to a single schedule. And then we will issue more than one resolution. It is unlikely that anyone would dare to close down a work of such magnitude. There will be success - there will be money! Involve as many businesses as possible without delay.”

In order to understand the design contradictions between Korolev, Chelomey and Yangel, Ustinov instructed NDI-88 to carry out an objective comparative assessment of the possibilities of lunar exploration with the carrier variants N-1 (11A52), UR-500 (8K82) and R-56 (8K68). According to the calculations of Mozzhorin and his employees, in order to unconditionally ensure priority over the United States, it is necessary to assemble a 200-ton rocket system in orbit near the Earth with the help of three N-1s. To do this, you will need three N-1 missiles or twenty UR-500 missiles. In this case, a ship weighing 21 tons will land on the Moon and a ship weighing 5 tons will return to Earth. All economic calculations were in favor of the N-1. Thus, N-1 became the main promising carrier for the implementation of the Soviet lunar program and, as it turned out later, the main reason for its failure.

E-1 - collision with the moon. Four launches. 1 partial success (Luna-1)
E-1A - collision with the moon (Luna-2)
E-2 - photographing the far side of the Moon. Launch was scheduled for October-November 1958. Canceled
E-2A - photographing the far side of the moon using the Yenisei-2 photosystem. Completed (Luna-3)
E-2F - canceled due to problems with the Yenisei-3 photosystem. The launch was scheduled for April 1960.
E-3 - Photographing the far side of the Moon. Launched in 1960.
E-4 - Atomic explosion on the surface of the Moon. Canceled
E-5 - Entry into lunar orbit. Was planned for 1960
E-6 - Soft landing on the Moon. Was planned for 1960
E-7 - Photographing the surface of the Moon from orbit. Was planned for 1960

Implementation of the program

The program was implemented according to the same principles as in the United States. At first, attempts were made to reach the surface of the Moon using AMS.

With their help, it was planned to perform a number of important applied tasks:

better understand the physical properties of the lunar surface;
study the radiation situation in near space;
develop technologies for creating delivery vehicles;
demonstrate the high level of domestic science and technology.

However, unlike the Americans, some of the work, especially those related to the manned aspect of the program, was classified. Before this year, only a few Soviet sources (“Yearbook of TSB” and the encyclopedia “Cosmonautics”) casually mentioned that the “Zond” apparatus was an unmanned prototype of a ship for circling the Moon, and general and non-specific phrases about future landings of Soviet cosmonauts on the Moon were mentioned in official sources stopped appearing even earlier - after a year.

In addition, imperfect technology has necessitated the need for redundancy of individual systems. Since a manned flight around the Moon and landing on its surface was a matter of prestige, it was necessary to take maximum measures to prevent casualties in case of emergency situations.

To study the lunar surface, as well as for detailed mapping of possible landing sites for Soviet lunar spacecraft, the Luna series of satellites (representing vehicles for various purposes) were created. Also, special versions of lunar rovers were designed to support landing expeditions.

Lunar Cosmonaut Squad

The lunar group of the Soviet detachment of civilian cosmonauts at the TsKBEM in the Cosmonaut Training Center was actually created in the year. At the same time, before the strictest secrecy was imposed on the Soviet lunar program, Tereshkova spoke to foreign journalists about this and the fact that Gagarin was initially the head of the group during a visit to Cuba. Since then, the group has been documented (as a department for training cosmonaut commanders and researchers for the lunar program), in May it was approved by the Military-Industrial Commission, and in February it was finally formed.

According to published sources, key members of the group were present and inspected the ships during the launches of Zond-4 and subsequent L1 spacecraft (including, while at Baikonur, awaiting permission to fly Zond-7 on December 8), as well as L1S on the second launch of the N-1 launch vehicle. Popovich and Sevastyanov and others negotiated with the control center through the Zond ships during their flights.

Manned flyby of the Moon (UR500K/Proton-L1/Zond complex)

In different design bureaus there were a number of projects to fly around the Moon, including several launches and assembly of a spacecraft in low-Earth orbit (before the advent of the Proton rocket) and direct flight around the Moon. For the implementation of the flight program, a project was selected and brought to the stage of the last unmanned development launches and flights from the newly created OKB-1 Korolev 7K-L1 spacecraft as part of the Soyuz family and the Chelomey OKB-52 Proton launch vehicle created somewhat earlier.

submit a schedule for the production and testing of the UR-500 missile within a week;
together with the heads of OKB-1 and OKB-52, S. P. Korolev and V. M. Chelomey, within two weeks, consider and resolve issues about the possibility of unifying the manned spacecraft being developed for flying around the moon and landing an expedition on its surface;
within a month, submit the LCI program for the UR-500 rocket and manned spacecraft.

Nevertheless, both the military-industrial complex and the Ministry of General Machinery found it expedient to continue work based on the use of the Soyuz complex (7K, 9K, 11K) as another option for solving the problems of orbiting the Moon, and also instructed OKB-1 and OKB-52 to work out all the issues use of the UR-500K launch vehicle in the Soyuz complex program.

To fulfill the assignment of the Ministry and the issued instructions, during September-October, a comprehensive assessment of the state of work in OKB-52 and OKB-1 was carried out to implement the tasks of flying around the Moon with the involvement of employees of NII-88 (now TsNIIMASH), the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry, the heads of the Ministry, representatives of the government and the Central Committee of the CPSU. During the review, it became clear that OKB-52 is not able to resolve in a timely manner all issues related to the creation and testing of the UR-500 rocket, the rocket booster unit and the LK-1 lunar orbital vehicle. In OKB-1, on the contrary, the state of development of a manned spacecraft of type 7K and upper stage D for the N1-L3 complex was more favorable. This created the basis for the reorientation from OKB-52 to OKB-1 of work on the spacecraft and upper stage D for the flyby of the Moon, including solving a number of problems related to the implementation of the lunar expedition program carried out by the N1-L3 complex.

Flight schedule of 7K-L1 spacecraft (from the beginning of the year):

Flight	Task	date
2P		February March
3P	unmanned flight in highly elliptical orbit	March
4L	unmanned lunar flyby	May
5L	unmanned lunar flyby	June
6L	world's first manned flyby of the Moon	June July
7L	Moon	August
8L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	August
9L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	September
10L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	September
11L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	October
12L	manned lunar flyby	October
13L	reserve

There were turtles on the Zond-5 ship. They became the first living beings in history to return to Earth after flying around the Moon - three months before the Apollo 8 flight.

In the nervous conditions of the “lunar race”, due to the USSR conducting two unmanned flights around the Moon and concealing failures in the L1 program, the United States made a risky rearrangement in its lunar program and made a flyby flight before the previously planned complete testing of the entire Apollo complex in low-Earth orbit. . The Apollo 8 lunar flyby was carried out without a lunar module (which was not yet ready) following the only near-Earth manned orbital flight. This was the first manned launch for the Saturn 5 super-heavy launch vehicle.

The last unmanned flight of the Soyuz-7K-L1 spacecraft, called Zond-8, was made in October, after which the L1 program was finally closed, since the non-stop flight of the Soviet cosmonauts on the Moon after the Americans landed on it twice was lost meaning.

Moon landing (complex N1-L3)

Lunar orbital ship-module LOK (computer graphics)

The main parts of the rocket and space system for landing on the Moon according to the N-1-L3 project were the Soyuz-7K-LOK lunar orbital ship, the LK lunar landing ship and the N1 super-heavy launch vehicle.

The lunar orbital vehicle was very similar and significantly unified with the near-Earth orbital vehicle Soyuz-7K-LOK and also consisted of a descent module, a living compartment, on which a special compartment was located with orientation and mooring engines and a docking system unit, instrumentation and energy compartments, which housed the “I” rocket unit and units of the power supply system based on oxygen-hydrogen fuel cells. The living compartment also served as an airlock during the astronaut’s transition to the lunar spacecraft through outer space (after putting on the Krechet lunar suit).

The crew of the Soyuz-7K-LOK spacecraft consisted of two people. One of them had to go through outer space to the lunar ship and land on the Moon, and the second had to wait for the return of his comrade in lunar orbit.

The Soyuz-7K-LOK spacecraft was installed for unmanned flight tests on the N-1 carrier during its fourth (and last) launch in November, but due to a carrier accident it was never launched into space.

The lunar spacecraft LK consisted of a sealed cosmonaut cabin, a compartment with orientation engines with a passive docking unit, an instrument compartment, a lunar landing unit (LLA) and a rocket unit E. The LK was powered by chemical batteries installed externally on the LPA frame and in the instrument compartment. The control system was built on the basis of an on-board digital computer and had a manual control system that allowed the astronaut to independently select the landing site visually through a special window. The lunar landing module had four legs - supports with honeycomb absorbers of excessive vertical landing speed.

The lunar spacecraft LK T2K was successfully tested three times in low-Earth orbit in unmanned mode under the names “Cosmos-379”, “Cosmos-398” and “Cosmos-434”, respectively, in November and February and August.

Flight schedule of L3 ships (from the beginning of the year):

Mission	Target	date
3L	mock-ups for testing N1	September
4L	reserve
5L	unmanned LOC and LC	December
6L	unmanned LOC and LC	February
7L		April
8L	Luna as a backup LK-R	June
9L	manned LOC and unmanned LOC	August
10L	manned LOK and LC with the world's first astronaut landing on the Moon	September
11L	manned LOK and unmanned LC with landing on the Moon as a backup LC-R
12L	manned LOK and LC with landing of an astronaut on the Moon
13L	reserve

Even before the launch of the lunar flyby and lunar landing programs in the USSR, technical proposals were developed for the creation and use of the heavy lunar rover L2 and the lunar orbital station L4 in lunar expeditions. Also, after the success of the United States and the curtailment of work on the N1 - L3 program, a new project N1F - L3M was drawn up to ensure longer-term expeditions to the Moon than the American ones with the prospect of construction on its surface in the 1960s. Soviet lunar base "Zvezda", a fairly detailed design of which had already been developed, including models of expeditionary vehicles and manned modules. However, Academician V.P. Glushko, appointed in May 1974 as the general designer of the Soviet space program instead of V.P. Mishin, by his order (with the consent of the Politburo and the Ministry of General Engineering) stopped all work on the H1 launch vehicle and manned lunar programs in the year (formally the program was closed in the year). A later project for Soviet manned flights to the Moon, Vulcan-LEK, was considered, but was also not implemented.

The failure of the Soviet lunar program mainly affected the career of V.P. Mishin, who on May 22 was removed from the post of Chief Designer of TsKBEM. On the same day, a government decree was signed on the transformation of TsKBEM into NPO Energia and on the appointment of V.P. Glushko as its director and chief designer. The first thing Glushko did in his new place was to close the lunar program involving the rocket he hated

Soviet manned lunar mission program- a number of projects and two parallel programs carried out in the USSR (lunar flyby and lunar landing), which had as their goal the exploration of the Moon using manned spacecraft. It was an important element of the Soviet space program and for a long time was the most important project in terms of its significance and priority.

Due to rivalry between different design bureaus, projects of a similar purpose were simultaneously and in parallel developed in two or even three of them. Thus, different versions of the lunar ship were developed in the design bureaus of S.P. Korolev and V.N. Chelomey, and a super-powerful carrier for flight to the Moon was developed in the design bureaus of Korolev, Chelomey and M.K. Yangel. This state of affairs was a consequence of poor coordination of the lunar program and led to an unnecessary dispersion of forces and resources. This was one of the reasons why manned flights to and from the Moon never took place in the USSR.

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Only a few years later, with a great delay relative to the United States, on August 3, the government decree approved the lunar manned program of the USSR and real large-scale work began on two parallel manned programs: a flyby of the Moon (“Proton” - “Zond/L1)” by 1967 and landing on it (N-1-L3) by 1968 with the start of flight design tests in 1966.

The design of the L1 and L3 spacecraft and the N-1 rocket units, as well as the development of schemes for expeditions to and to the Moon, began even before the adoption of the program - in 1963. Over the next two years, working drawings of the N-1 rocket were released and the first preliminary designs of lunar spacecraft appeared.

Deploy production with at least four media per year, involve everyone who is needed in the work, but according to a single schedule. And then we will issue more than one resolution. It is unlikely that anyone would dare to close down a work of such magnitude. There will be success - there will be money! Involve as many businesses as possible without delay.

In order to understand the design contradictions between Korolev, Chelomey and Yangel, D. Ustinov instructed NII-88 to carry out an objective comparative assessment of the possibilities of lunar exploration using carrier variants N-1 (11A52), UR-500 (8K82) and R-56 (8K68). According to the calculations of Mozzhorin and his employees, in order to unconditionally ensure priority over the United States, it is necessary to assemble a 200-ton rocket system in orbit near the Earth with the help of three N-1s. To do this, you will need three N-1 missiles or twenty UR-500 missiles. In this case, a ship weighing 21 tons will land on the Moon and a ship weighing 5 tons will return to Earth. All economic calculations were in favor of N-1. Thus, N-1 became the main promising carrier for the implementation of the Soviet lunar program and, as it turned out later, the main reason for its failure.

E-1 - collision with the Moon. Four launches. 1 partial success (Luna-1).
E-1A - collision with the Moon (Luna-2).
E-2 - photographing the far side of the Moon. The launch was planned for October-November 1958. Canceled.
E-2A - photographing the far side of the Moon using the Yenisei-2 photosystem. Completed (Luna-3).
E-2F - canceled due to problems with the Yenisei-3 photosystem. The launch was scheduled for April 1960.
E-3 - photographing the far side of the Moon. Launched in 1960.
E-4 - Atomic explosion on the surface of the Moon. Canceled.
E-5 - entry into lunar orbit. Was planned for 1960.
E-6 - soft landing on the Moon. Was planned for 1960.
E-7 - photographing the surface of the Moon from orbit. Was planned for 1960.

Implementation of the program

The program was implemented according to the same principles as in the United States. At first, attempts were made to reach the surface of the Moon using AMS.

With their help, it was planned to perform a number of important applied tasks:

better understand the physical properties of the lunar surface;
study the radiation situation in near space;
develop technologies for creating delivery vehicles;
demonstrate the high level of domestic science and technology.

Lunar Cosmonaut Squad

Manned flyby of the Moon (UR500K/Proton-L1/Zond complex)

submit a schedule for the production and testing of the UR-500 missile within a week;
together with the heads of OKB-1 and OKB-52, S. P. Korolev and V. M. Chelomey, within two weeks, consider and resolve issues about the possibility of unifying the manned spacecraft being developed for flying around the moon and landing an expedition on its surface;
within a month, submit the LCI program for the UR-500 rocket and manned spacecraft.

To fulfill the assignment of the Ministry and the issued instructions, during September-October, a comprehensive assessment of the state of work in OKB-52 and OKB-1 was carried out to implement the tasks of flying around the Moon with the involvement of employees of NII-88 (now TsNIIMASH), the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry, the heads of the Ministry, representatives of the government and the Central Committee of the CPSU. During the review, it became clear that OKB-52 is not able to resolve in a timely manner all issues related to the creation and testing of the UR-500 rocket, the rocket upper stage and the LK-1 lunar orbital vehicle. In OKB-1, on the contrary, the state of development of a manned spacecraft of type 7K and upper stage D for the N1-L3 complex was more favorable. This created the basis for the reorientation from OKB-52 to OKB-1 of work on the spacecraft and upper stage D for the flyby of the Moon, including solving a number of problems related to the implementation of the lunar expedition program carried out by the N1-L3 complex.

Flight schedule of 7K-L1 spacecraft (from the beginning of 1967):

Flight	Task	date
2P		February - March 1967
3P	unmanned flight in highly elliptical orbit	March 1967
4L	unmanned lunar flyby	May 1967
5L	unmanned lunar flyby	June 1967
6L	world's first manned flyby of the Moon	June-July 1967
7L		August 1967
8L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	August 1967
9L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	September 1967
10L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	September 1967
11L	unmanned or manned flyby of the Moon	October 1967
12L	manned lunar flyby	October 1967
13L	reserve

There were turtles on the Zond-5 ship. They became the first living beings in history to return to Earth after flying around the Moon - three months before the Apollo 8 flight.

In the USSR, to ensure priority for the world's first manned flight, the launch of the Zond-7 manned spacecraft as part of the L1 program was planned for December 8, 1968. Due to the fact that previous unmanned flights of the L1 spacecraft were completely or partially unsuccessful due to the lack of development of the ship and the carrier, such a risky flight was canceled - despite the fact that the crews wrote a statement to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee asking for permission to fly to the Moon immediately to get ahead of the United States . Even if permission had been received, the USSR would not have won the flyby stage of the “lunar race” - on January 20, 1969, when trying to launch the Zond-7 spacecraft in unmanned mode, the Proton launch vehicle exploded (the descent module was saved by the emergency rescue system) .

Moon landing (complex N1-L3)

The leadership of the USSR set the task of ensuring priority also for the world's first landing on the Moon. This was provided for by the first decree of the year in general, and by decree from the beginning of the year the first expedition was prescribed for the third quarter of the year. The Soviet lunar landing program N1-L3 (parallel to the lunar flyby), which actually began in 1966, lagged far behind the American one, mainly due to problems with the carrier. The first two of the year (before the first American expedition), as well as the two subsequent ones, test launches of the new super-heavy launch vehicle N-1 ended in failure. The lunar-orbital ship-module 7K-LOK of the L3 complex made one, and the lunar-landing ship-module T2K-LK - three test near-Earth unmanned launches after the first US landing. According to the N1-L3 program, which continued for some time even after the triumph of the United States, the first Soviet expedition could take place only in the year , followed by one to five subsequent ones.

A number of different lunar landing projects were considered: several launches and assembly of a lunar ship from compartments in low-Earth orbit, direct flight to the Moon (without undocking in near-lunar orbit), etc. For a “direct” flight, OKB-52 Chelomeya proposed developing its own spacecraft LK -700 based on its carrier UR-700. This project was rejected as more technically complex and longer to implement. Due to greater developments and less technical risk, the Korolev Design Bureau N1-L3 project with a single-launch launch from the Earth and the division of ship-modules near the Moon into two - remaining on the lunar one - was selected and brought to the stage of unmanned test launches and flights. orbit and landing followed by takeoff and docking. During the development of this project, the “replanting” option with the launch of the entire L3 complex with one launch of the N-1 rocket, but without the cosmonauts, who were to be delivered on board the L3 by a separate launch of the Soyuz spacecraft, was considered as an option, but was ultimately rejected.

The Soyuz-7K-LOK spacecraft was installed for unmanned flight tests on the N-1 carrier during its fourth (and last) launch in November, but due to the carrier accident it was never launched into space.

The lunar spacecraft LK consisted of a sealed astronaut cabin, a compartment with orientation engines with a passive docking unit, an instrument compartment, a lunar landing unit (LLA) and a rocket unit E. The LK was powered by chemical batteries installed externally on the LPA frame and in the instrument compartment. The control system was built on the basis of an on-board digital computer and had a manual control system that allowed the astronaut to independently select the landing site visually through a special window. The lunar landing module had four legs - supports with honeycomb absorbers of excessive vertical landing speed.

Flight schedule of L3 ships (from the beginning of the year):

Mission	Target	date
3L	mock-ups for testing N1	September
4L	reserve
5L	unmanned LOC and LC	December
6L	unmanned LOC and LC	February
7L		April 1968
8L	manned LOK and unmanned LC with landing on the Moon as a backup LC-R	June 1968
9L	manned LOC and unmanned LOC	August 1968
10L	manned LOK and LC with the world's first astronaut landing on the Moon	September 1968
11L	manned LOK and unmanned LC with landing on the Moon as a backup LC-R
12L	manned LOK and LC with landing of an astronaut on the Moon
13L	reserve

Even before the launch of the lunar flyby and lunar landing programs in the USSR, technical proposals were developed for the creation and use of the heavy lunar rover L2 and the lunar orbital station L4 in lunar expeditions. Also, after the success of the United States and the curtailment of work on the N1 - L3 program, a new project N1F - L3M was drawn up to provide longer-term than American expeditions to the Moon by the year with the prospect of construction on its surface in the 1960s. Soviet lunar base "Zvezda", a fairly detailed design of which has already been developed, including models of expeditionary vehicles and habitable modules. However, Academician V.P. Glushko, appointed in May 1974 as the general designer of the Soviet space program instead of V.P. Mishin, by his order (with the consent of the Politburo and the Ministry of General Engineering) stopped all work on the N-1 launch vehicle and manned lunar programs in 1974 year (formally the program was closed in the year). A later project for Soviet manned flights to the Moon, Vulcan-LEK, was considered, but was also not implemented.

Conspiracy theory

Gallery

Early concept of a lunar flyby complex:
7K-LOK (Soyuz-A), 9K-tanker (Soyuz-B), 11K-accelerator (Soyuz-C) (from right to left)

Soviet Union on the Moon
On the day of the 45th anniversary of the landing of the first people on the Moon, “Russian Planet” recalls the Soviet lunar program

A month after Gagarin's space flight, US President John F. Kennedy gave NASA a clearly defined goal: "If we can get to the Moon before the Russians, then we should do it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kennedy's speech was preceded by several years of Soviet space triumphs, including successful flights to the Moon and filming of its far side. It was a challenge. Just eight years later, on July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first of 12 Americans to visit Earth's moon. Three years later, the members of the last Apollo 17 mission not only took a “small step”, but already fully rode on a lunar rover on the Sea of Clarity.

Those six expeditions into the unknown 300 thousand kilometers from their home planet inspired generations of astronauts, science fiction writers and dreamers. Humanity momentarily believed in space colonization. But the practical side of the lunar program was not so rosy: for billions of dollars, almost half a ton of dusty regolith with rather dubious scientific value was brought to Earth. In the 1970s, American authorities forever turned away from the idea of manned flights to the Moon. The political task of the space race had already been completed.

The glory of space pioneers passed to the Americans, but the Soviet Union tried to maintain leadership until the last, developing its own lunar program.

2. Automatic interplanetary station Luna-1 with the last stage of the launch vehicle

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote about space flights in the 19th century. In the first half of the 20th century, engineer Mikhail Tikhonravov mathematically substantiated the possibility of flying a multi-stage rocket to the Moon. His developments served as the basis for the creation by the chief Soviet designer Sergei Korolev of the R-7 rocket, with which the space age began - the “seven” sent Sputnik, Laika and Gagarin into orbit. Already in the mid-1950s, Korolev said that flights to the Moon were “not such a distant prospect.” A design department for spacecraft is opened in his design bureau, of which Tikhonravov becomes the head.

In 1959, a modified R-7 (called the “First Space Rocket” in a TASS report) launched Luna 1 into space, two years after Sputnik’s triumphant flight. “That night when Sputnik first traced the sky, I looked up and thought about the predetermination of the future. After all, that little light, rapidly moving from one end to the other of the sky, was the future of all humanity. I knew that although the Russians were wonderful in their endeavors, we would soon follow them and take their rightful place in the sky,” recalled the American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury.

The writer was not mistaken, but so far the space pioneer was the Soviet Union. Luna-1 became the first human product to successfully develop a second escape velocity, rushing towards the Earth's satellite. Previous launches, including American Pioneers, ended in accidents. The device carried measuring instruments, four radio transmitters and power supplies. To prevent terrestrial microorganisms from reaching the Moon, the ship was subjected to thermal sterilization. The flight ended unsuccessfully: due to problems with the engine, Luna-1 missed six thousand kilometers, entering a heliocentric orbit. Nevertheless, for her almost successful attempt, she was nicknamed “The Dream.”

3. Luna-2 and Luna-3 (from left to right)

A year later, Luna 2 completed a historic mission, flying from Earth to another celestial body for the first time. Unlike modern devices, the Soviet ship did not have any parachutes. Therefore, the landing turned out to be as simple and rough as possible - Luna 2 simply collapsed on September 14, 1959 at 00:02:24 Moscow time on the western shore of the Sea of Rains. On board there were three pennants with the inscription “USSR, September 1959.” The area where it fell was called Lunnik Bay.

Another month later, Luna 3 orbited the Moon and transmitted the first photographs of its far side in human history. The images were taken by two cameras with long- and short-focus lenses and sent to Earth by the Yenisei photo-television device developed by the Leningrad Research Institute of Television. In the same year, the American Pioneer 4 failed to complete a similar mission, becoming the fifth US ship that never reached the Moon. After this, the entire Pioneer program was considered a failure and was refocused on other tasks. The Americans will continue to try to take photographs for several more years, but in the USSR preparations for the soft landing of the lunar spacecraft were already in full swing.

4. Map of the far side of the Moon

In 1960, based on photographs of Luna 3, the USSR Academy of Sciences published the first atlas of the far side of the Moon with 500 landscape details. They also made the first lunar globe depicting two-thirds of the surface of the opposite hemisphere. The names of the photographed landscape elements were officially approved by the International Astronomical Union.

5. Nikita Khrushchev and John Kennedy during a meeting in Vienna, June 3, 1961

In his 1961 inaugural address, Kennedy invited the Soviet Union to “explore the stars together.” In a response letter, Khrushchev congratulated the United States on the first orbital flight of John Glenn and agreed to join forces. Many years later, the son of the first secretary, Sergei Khrushchev, recalled that his father was determined to cooperate with the Americans. Kennedy instructed the government to prepare a draft for a Soviet-American space program, which would include a joint landing on the Moon.

In September 1963, the American president again raised this topic at the UN General Assembly: “Why should the first flight of man to the moon be a matter of interstate competition? Why do the United States and the Soviet Union need to duplicate research, design efforts and expenses when preparing such expeditions? I am sure we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries, and indeed the whole world, could not work together in the conquest of space, sending not representatives of any one state, but representatives of all our countries to the Moon one day this decade.”

It would seem that everything was ready for that era to be remembered not as a space race, but as a great alliance of two powers to conquer the Universe. But a month later, Kennedy was killed, and with him the dreams of a joint space program were killed. There was no more talk about her. According to Khrushchev's son, "if Kennedy had survived, we would have lived in a completely different world."

6. Cover of the magazine Youth Technology for September 1964

In 1964, “Technology for Youth” published the article “Why does man need the Moon?”, which begins with a quote from Tsiolkovsky: “My worries will give mountains of bread and an abyss of power.” A manned flight to the earth’s satellite seems to be a done deal for the Soviet popular science publication: “Soon man will fly to the moon. What for? Not just out of sporting interest, is it? (...) Of course, the Moon is just a link in an endless chain of other scientific achievements. She will not give us the entire “abyss of power,” but we will demand something, and a considerable one, from her as soon as a human foot sets foot on its age-old dust.”

The Soviet man is not going to the Moon for fossils - “delivery would be too expensive.” For knowledge! To conduct an “isotopic analysis of the chemical elements of lunar rocks”, to obtain “information about the influence of cosmic rays on different types of plants”; make meteorological forecasts by observing “the movement of clouds over half the globe at once”; find “inorganic oil” and build the first extraterrestrial observatory. And thanks to the untouchable lunar landscape, it will “take scientists billions of years ago, reveal the secrets of history and our Earth.”

The most futuristic plan is to sheathe the surface of the satellite with mirror glass. Then the Moon will reflect sunlight around the clock, and “Leningrad’s white nights will penetrate all corners of the Earth.” “This will provide enormous energy savings on lighting,” the article says.

7. Drawing of the landing of the Luna-9 space station

On February 3, 1966, the world's first soft landing on the Moon took place. The station confirmed that the lunar surface is solid, there is no multi-meter layer of dust on it, and transmitted television panoramas of the surrounding landscape. The landing area in the Ocean of Storms was called the Lunar Landing Plain.

Looking at the images transmitted by Luna 9 turned out to be more difficult than sending the station itself into space. The signal from it was intercepted by the Manchester University Observatory. English astronomers decided not to publish lunar photos and wait for the official Soviet presentation. But the next day no statements were made. The British sent a telegram to Moscow. Nobody answered them, and even then the astronomers sent the pictures to newspapermen. Subsequently, it turned out that in the USSR the photographs taken by Luna-9 took a long time to be passed from one instance to another, collecting the signatures necessary for publication.

8. Sergei Korolev, Vladimir Chelomei, Mikhail Yangel (from left to right)

The Soviet manned lunar program may have been doomed from the start; it was in turmoil from the start. In 1964, the resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers “On work on the exploration of the Moon and outer space” determined the period of the Soviet expedition to the Moon - 1967-1968. However, there was no unified plan or schedule. In the 1960s, three design bureaus of famous Soviet engineers - Korolev, Chelomey and Yangel - worked secretly on launch vehicles and the lunar modules themselves.

9. Diagrams of the N-1, UR-700 and R-56 missiles (from left to right)

Korolev worked on the super-heavy N-1 rocket, Chelomey on the heavy UR-500 and super-heavy UR-700, Yangel on the super-heavy R-56. An independent assessment of the sketches, on behalf of the government, was carried out by Academician Mozzhorin. Yangel's project was eventually abandoned, ordering the construction of the N-1 and UR-500. Sergei Khrushchev worked for Chelomey in those years, including on the development of the UR-500.

10. Model of the N-1 launch vehicle on a scale of 1:10 (left) and
the last stage of the N-1 rocket on a scale of 1:5

Korolev proposed assembling a heavy interplanetary spacecraft in orbit. The super-heavy N-1 with 30 engines was intended for this purpose, the operation of which had to be carefully coordinated.

“Until the end of 1963, the structural scheme of the lunar expedition had not yet been chosen. Initially, our designers proposed an option with a good weight margin. It provided for a three-launch scheme with the assembly of a space rocket in assembly orbit near the Earth with a total launch mass (including fuel) of 200 tons. At the same time, the payload mass for each of the three H1 launches did not exceed 75 tons. The mass of the system during the flight to the Moon in this version reached 62 tons, which was almost 20 tons higher than the corresponding mass of Apollo. The mass of the system landing on the surface of the Moon was 21 tons in our proposals, while for Apollo it was 15 tons. But there were not even three launches in our scheme, but four. It was planned to launch a crew of two or three people into space on the proven 11A511 rocket - that was the name of the R-7A rocket produced by the Progress plant for manned launches at the end of 1963, writes Boris Chertok, Korolev’s main ally, in “Rockets and People” .

11. Computer model of the Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft in space

Korolev's project was named N1-L3; he designed not only the rocket, but also the L3 lunar complex consisting of an orbital ship and a landing module, on which the astronauts were supposed to descend to the surface of the satellite. One of the contenders for the role of an orbital ship was Soyuz 7K-L. Five copies made successful automatic flights - one even circled the Moon and returned to Earth. There were two turtles on board.

The first manned launch of 7K-L1 was planned for December 8, 1968, ahead of Apollo 8, which launched on the 21st and brought people to orbit the Moon for the first time. But due to the lack of development of 7K-L1, the flight was postponed.

12. Computer model of the LOK ship in space

Another modification of the Soyuz is 7K-LOK (Lunar Orbital Ship). Upon reaching the lunar orbit, the Lunar Ship, the Lunar Ship, was to be detached from it, on which one cosmonaut would go down.

Due to the characteristics of the designed ships, they wanted to send only two astronauts to the Moon, of which only one could land on the satellite itself. NASA, in turn, formed a team of five people. Soviet designers also expected that the ship would land and take off using only one engine—the Americans developed two different ones for these purposes.

The chances of success were also reduced by the fact that the USSR did not organize preliminary photography of sections of the Moon from close range to select the landing site for the cosmonauts. In the USA, 13 successful flights were made for this purpose.

13. Computer model of the Lunar ship on the surface of the Moon

The lunar ship consisted of a pressurized cabin that could accommodate only one astronaut, a compartment with attitude control engines with a passive docking unit, an instrument compartment, a lunar landing unit and a rocket unit. There were no solar panels installed on it; the power supply was provided by chemical batteries.

The LC was launched three times empty into low-Earth orbit, where they simulated a flight to the Moon - the last time in 1971. Based on the test results, it was decided that the lunar module is completely ready to remain on the earth’s satellite. However, in the early seventies there was little sense in the belated success - the Americans had already visited the satellite several times.

14. Alexey Leonov (center) and Yuri Gagarin (right) look at photographs of the lunar surface, 1966

A group of astronauts for the flight to the Moon was established in 1963. Gagarin was initially appointed head of the team. The first Soviet cosmonaut to set foot on the moon was to be Alexey Leonov. When the 7K-L1 flight was canceled in 1968, the team wrote a statement to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee asking for permission to fly to the Moon. A year later, the group was disbanded - first they stopped training for the lunar flyby, and six months later they stopped training for the landing.

15. N1 rocket accident

The launches of N1, on which the greatest hopes were placed for delivering the LOK and LC to the Moon, did not work out. The death in 1966 of Academician Korolev, who led most of the work, called the project into question. The work was continued by his colleague Vasily Mishin.

The first launch in the spring of 1969 ended in a crash 50 kilometers from the cosmodrome: the automatic control system, overheating, turned off all engines. During the second, two weeks before the Apollo 11 flight, one of the engines caught fire, causing the automation to shut down the other 29. The rocket fell directly onto the Baikonur launch pad, destroying the entire infrastructure. Perhaps this was the first harbinger of loss in the space race: 11 days later, the Americans landed on the Moon, and our launch pad was just beginning to be rebuilt. The renovation will take two years.

In 1971, in order not to destroy the launch complex again, after launch the rocket was moved to the side, as a result of which it began to rotate around a vertical axis and fell apart. During the fourth launch, one of the engines caught fire again, after which the rocket was destroyed by a team from Earth. Along with it, 7K-LOK, which was supposed to go to the Moon without a crew, also crashed. All further planned launches were canceled - by this point the Soviet Union had already completely lost the lunar race.

16. Diagram of the UR-700 missile

A fundamentally different version of a manned flight was proposed by Academician Chelomey - to send a ship of his own production LK-700 on the super-heavy UR-700 directly to the Moon without assembly in low-Earth orbit. The rocket's payload in low Earth orbit was supposed to be about 150 tons - 60 tons more than the Royal N-1. Chelomey's descent module could accommodate two cosmonauts.

UR-700-LK-700 was intended not only for manned flights there and back, but also for the creation of stationary bases on the Moon. However, the expert commission only allowed preliminary design of the complex. The central argument against it was the extremely toxic fuel cocktail of 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide, fluorine and hydrogen. If such a rocket fell, there would be nothing left of Baikonur.

17. UR-500 rocket at the launch position

As a result, it was Chelomeyev’s medium-heavy UR-500 that became the main Soviet space rocket. In the early sixties, it was developed simultaneously both as an intercontinental ballistic missile with a warhead and as a launch vehicle for spacecraft weighing 12-13 tons. After Khrushchev was removed from office, the combat option was abandoned. Only the spacecraft launch vehicle remained in operation, and already in 1965 they carried out a series of successful launches.

Today we know the UR-500 as “Proton”.

18. Yakov Zeldovich

It was proposed to send not only astronauts to the Moon, but also a nuclear bomb. The idea was put forward by atomic physicist Yakov Zeldovich, who hoped that the pillar from the explosion would be seen anywhere on the planet and it would become clear to the whole world that the USSR had conquered the Earth’s satellite. He himself rejected his initiative after calculations showed that the trace of even a nuclear explosion would not be visible from Earth.

Republican Robert McNamara, who served as US Secretary of Defense in the 1960s, said that several senior Pentagon officials at the time feared that the Soviet Union would conduct nuclear tests on the far side of the Moon, thereby violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. McNamara himself called such ideas “absurd” and that these officials were “out of their minds” due to the Cold War. Ironically, it later turned out that the Pentagon had exactly the same plan to explode a nuclear bomb on the Moon - the so-called A119 project, however, like the Soviet one, it was not implemented.

19. Model of the interplanetary station Luna-16

In September 1970, a year after Armstrong's flight, the Soviet Union managed to deliver regolith beyond Earth. Luna 16, which landed in the Sea of Plenty, drilled a 30-centimeter hole and brought back as much as 100 grams of sand.

20. Drawing of the landing of the automatic station Luna-17 with Lunokhod-1

The Soviet Union was unable to send a single person to the Moon, but was making huge strides in robotic space exploration, which the United States would bet on after the last Apollo. Luna 17, sent by Proton, landed in the Mare Mons area. Two and a half hours after landing, Lunokhod-1, the world's first moving vehicle to operate on an alien surface, rolled down the ramp from the landing platform.

21. Landing stage of Luna-17, image transmitted by Lunokhod-1

The Lunokhod was built at the plant named after. S.A. Lavochkin under the leadership of chief designer Babakin. Its chassis - eight wheels with a separate engine for each - was designed at the Leningrad Institute of Transport Engineering VNIITransMash.

He worked for 10 months or 11 lunar days, traveled 10 kilometers and performed soil studies at 500 points. I traveled mainly along the plain south of Rainbow Bay in the Sea of Rains.

22. Route of Lunokhod-2

A year after the Americans last visited the Moon, Lunokhod-2 will land on it. He was landed in the Lemonnier crater on the eastern shore of the Sea of Clarity. Unlike his older brother, he moved much faster and traveled almost 40 kilometers in four months.

A few more years will pass and the USSR and the USA will finally curtail their lunar programs - this time robotic ones. The last one will be Luna 24 in 1976. Only in 1990 did Japan launch its first lunar probe, Hiten, becoming the third state to rush to the Earth's satellite.

23. Still from the movie “Funny Stories”

After countless attempts, the Americans finally managed to land a man on the Moon. The first thing he saw was another person.

- Hey, buddy, you're Russian, of course?
- No, I'm Spanish! - Spaniard? Damn it, how did you get here?

- It’s very simple: we took a general, put a priest on him, then again alternately generals and priests, until we finally reached the Moon!
“Technology for Youth” No. 9, 1964

Nesterova I.A. USSR Lunar Program // Nesterov Encyclopedia

In modern Russia, interest in space and its exploration has returned. The most important stage in the development of space exploration is the preparation of a flight to the Moon and the development of a program for its settlement. In this regard, it is necessary to turn not only to the consideration of prospects, but also to research conducted in the past.

Introduction

If you look back, it becomes obvious that Russia is the leader in the field of space exploration. However, after the first difficult decade after the collapse of the USSR, marked by attempts to nullify all the achievements of our country, the need to increase spending on space research becomes obvious. This is important for preserving Russia's status as a space pioneer.

All over the world, the younger generation, mired in the abyss of social networks, narcissism and tolerance, cannot and does not want to question the pretentious landing of Neil Armstrong. However, one has only to think about the existing newsreel footage, and it becomes obvious: these cheerful guys were not in space.

Would America, greedy for other people's resources, refuse to try to dry up the earth's satellite? Of course not. So let’s still turn to the past and present of Russia’s lunar program to know what the future actually awaits us.

USSR lunar program is of great interest to modern science. It is a reflection of the unshakable will and humiliating power of the bureaucracy, capable of nullifying any efforts. It is already known for certain that the emergence and development Soviet lunar program no less effort was expended than the Americans did on.

Going to the Moon was being thought about before the CCCP sent .

The first lunar stations began to be developed at the Korolev Design Bureau at the end of 1957. And already in December 1957. a preliminary design of the devices was ready: E-1 to complete the task of hitting the lunar disk, E-2 - flyby and photographing the Moon, E-Z - a nuclear explosion on the visible side of the Moon. At the beginning of 1958 Academicians S. Korolev and M. Keldysh brought a draft program for studying the Moon to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. By this time, a nuclear explosion on the Moon had already been abandoned.

In 1960, work began on the creation of a super-heavy carrier, without which it would not have been possible to carry out the lunar expedition. In parallel, in 1963, the L1 spacecraft for a flight around the Moon and the L3 spacecraft for a landing mission began to be developed.

The trouble with the Soviet lunar program was that, despite the wide range of ideas for lunar exploration, not a single undertaking was brought to a completely successful conclusion. Due to the rivalry between various design bureaus (hereinafter referred to as KB), projects of a similar purpose were simultaneously and in parallel developed in two or even three of them. Accordingly, the energy and funds for testing flowed away like water, without bringing any visible results. Various versions of the lunar spacecraft were developed at the design bureaus of S. Korolev and V.N. Chelomey, and a super-powerful carrier for flight to the Moon was developed at the design bureaus of Korolev, Chelomey and Yangel.

Projects of spacecraft for circling the Moon by S. Korolev OKB-1 and V.N. OKB-52. Chelomeya

OKB-52 V.N. Chalomeya enjoyed the sympathy of N.S. Khrushchev. However, after Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was quietly and without fanfare removed on October 13, 1964, OKB-52 was no longer a success. Management USSR lunar program completely passed to Sergei Korolev. The most offensive thing for V.N. Chalomey was that S. Korolev had the opportunity to use all the developments of V.N. Chelomey on a manned flight to the Moon and, in particular, the UR-500K rocket for his tasks.

Due to the fact that none of the versions of the lunar spacecraft was 100% effective, at the end of 1965 - beginning of 1966 the country's leadership decided to combine the flyby projects of the two design bureaus. From S. Korolev they took the upper stage block D (from the N1-L3 program - expedition to the Moon), and the 7K-L1 spacecraft, which was created on the basis of developments on 7K, and from V.N. Chelomey they took the UR-500K rocket.

The mass of the upper stage and the ship exceeded the capabilities of the rocket. Therefore, they came up with an original scheme: the UR-500K launches the “RB-ship” combination onto a trajectory close to the orbital one, and further insertion into orbit is carried out using block D.

By the second switching on of block D, the bundle is directed to the trajectory of the flight around the Moon. To save weight, everything they could was removed from the 7K (Soyuz) ship - even the living compartment and the reserve parachute system. Many modifications required orientation and communication systems; the descent vehicle had to be “taught” to enter the atmosphere at the second escape velocity.

Already in 1965, cosmonauts began training, who were to fly on ships that were supposed to fly around the Moon. The group included: Valery Bykovsky, Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Komarov, Alexey Leonov, Andriyan Nikolaev, Pavel Popovich, as well as those who have not yet completed space school Georgy Beregovoy, Lev Vorobyov, Viktor Gorbatko, Georgy Grechko, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Alexey Eliseev, Valery Kubasov, Vasily Lazarev, Oleg Makarov, Nikolay Rukavishnikov, Vitaly Sevastyanov, Anatoly Filipchenko, Evgeny Khrunov and Valery Yazdovsky.

Problems of the lunar program after the death of S. Korolev

After the death of S. Korolev in 1966, Vasily Mishin took his place. Against this background, affairs with USSR lunar program are not going very smoothly. Already in 1967, Yangel notified Mishin that the lunar ship would be ready no earlier than 1971. This is a disaster, since in this case the delay was recorded at three years. Due to problems with senior management, concerned about news from the States, in 1968 the program again underwent changes. Initially, it was planned to land on the lunar equator, i.e. the lunar orbiter would be in equatorial orbit and fly over the landing site of the lunar cabin every hour. This greatly facilitated the approach and docking of the vehicles, but at the same time, the most interesting landing sites are not always located precisely on the equator.

As a result, three options were developed, shown in the figure below. The Americans also thought through various options.

The United States chose the first option, while in the Soviet program they preferred the second. The docking was supposed to take place at an altitude of 25-30 km. In the USSR, an analog system was developed that calculates the necessary orbital elements and the moments when the propulsion system is turned on. Such a system for the lunar ship was created and was very effective. Choosing a different path USSR lunar program could not offer its worthy implementation.

Soviet lunar rover. Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow, Russia. 2016

Due to a series of unsuccessful launches, a manned flight to the Moon was constantly postponed. More and more new problems emerged that required radical revisions to the existing concept of landing a man on the Moon. In this regard, the USSR lunar program turned into a money vacuum cleaner. Conflicts between key design bureaus and constant tug-of-war made it difficult to arrive at an optimal technical solution in a timely manner.

Due to the delay in flight testing of the N-1 rocket, the lunar exploration program was refocused on unmanned flights with a gradual decrease in the number of launches of automatic stations.

Despite the fact that Soviet scientists still managed to develop a unique engine and almost complete the creation of a ship capable of landing on the Moon without hindrance, after the supposedly accomplished Apollo “flight,” the program was completely closed.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the USSR has repeatedly and very successfully conducted research on the lunar surface. However, the cunning Americans deceived the USSR into depriving it of primacy in lunar exploration, taking advantage of the spinelessness, greed and infantilism of the party elite. The fact that no American has ever set foot on the surface of the Moon leaves no doubt at this time. However, then it was almost impossible to reveal their lies. In addition, the leadership of the USSR behaved like a spoiled child: they were offended and closed the lunar program. No one cared about the efforts of hundreds of people.

Literature

Afanasyev I.B. Unknown ships - M.: Scientific literature, 1991.
Pervushin A.I. Battle for the Stars - M.: Amphora, 2014
Pervushin A.I. Battle for the Moon. Truth and lies about the lunar race / Ed. Trofimova E.A. – M.: Amphora, 2014.