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On July 3, 1969, the same month as the the Apollo 11 Moon landing, The Soviet Union made another secret attempt to fly their giant Moon rocket.
N1-5L Rollout to pad. Credit Russia Space Web
Raising N1-5L
Escape system activated for N1-5L. Credit Russian Space Web.
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Finally, on the morning of February 21, all the population of the N1 assembly area and a residential area, situated just south of the launch pad, was ordered to evacuate. The giant service structure then rolled away leaving the dark-gray rocket with a white payload fairing towering under sunny skies. The weather was extremely cold, with temperatures falling to minus 44 C degrees, and stormy winds. In the fortified firing control room, the Commander of the 6th Directorate, took the firing command position at the main periscope…
Apollo CSM/LM vs. Soviet L3 Complex. Credit Mark Wade
N1 image taken by US KH-8 Reconnaissance satellite
N1 on the launch pad
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On August the third 1964 Decree number 655-268 was issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. For the first time a command was given for OKB-1 to put one man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the United States (Keep in mind the US already had already begun their Lunar program more than three years earlier, in April 1961).
N1-L3 as per advanced project, 1964. Credit Astronautix
N-IF – 1965 design. Credit Astronautix
N1 diagram.
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The L-3 manned spacecraft was designed to make a direct lunar landing using the earth orbit rendezvous method. It was a 200 metric ton spacecraft requiring three N1 launches and a single Soyuz 11A5ll launch to assemble in low earth orbit. The first N1 launch would place the 75 metric ton partially-fueled Trans Lunar Injection stage and L3 spacecraft into low earth orbit. Two further N1 launches would orbit 75 metric ton tankers which would rendezvous and dock with the first payload and top off its propellant tanks. Then the Soyuz would be launched for an automated rear-end docking with the entire L3 stack.
Comparison of U.S. Saturn V with Soviet N1/L3
N-1 draft project design of 1962. credit Astronautix
N-1 Launch Diagram
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Vladimir Shatalov would become the Soviet Union’s 13th space traveler, his home telephone number ended in “13” and the launch itself was set for 13:00 hours Moscow Time, on January 13th, 1969.
Model of Soyuz 5 approaching Soyuz 4 prior to the first docking of 2 manned spacecrafts
Soyuz 5 mission patch
Official portrait for Soyuz 4/5 cosmonauts, OKB-1, militay and government personnel. Credit Boris Chertok
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The objectives of the Soyuz 4 & 5 mission were to dock two manned Soyuz 7K-0Ks, transfer two Cosmonauts from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 by means of a space walk, and then safely return both crews to earth.
Soyuz 4 & 5 crew (from left) Yeliseyev, Khrunov, Shatalov, and Volynov. Photo Credit:SpaceFacts.de
Soyuz 4 launch
Model of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 after performing the first docking of two manned spacecraft on January 16th, 1969
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New York City welcomed the Apollo 8 crew with a ticker-tape parade on the 10th of January, Newark hailed them on the 11th, and Miami greeted them on the 12th during the Super Bowl game. The Astronauts returned to Houston on the 13th for a hometown parade. Incoming President Richard M. Nixon sent Borman and his family on an eight-nation goodwill tour of western Europe. Everywhere they went, the astronauts depicted the earth as a spaceship and stressed international cooperation in space.
Borman, Anders, Lovell, on the flight deck of the carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, recovery ship Dec. 27, 1968.
Lovell, Borman, and Anders (left to right) – back on the earth after their Apollo 8 mission, tell what they saw
The Crew of Apollo 8 on the cover of Time Magazine
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Trouble began on the sixth day of the flight, November 17. The capsule developed an atmospheric leak, the pressure first dropping from 760 to 380 mm of Mercury. With the drop in cabin pressure all the animal test subjects died. It would have killed any Cosmonaut not wearing a spacesuit.
Proton-K with 7K-L1
Zone 6 mission profile
Zond 6 Double-dip reentry