Unlike the Americans, the Soviets did not have a single agency coordinating the country’s space program. The result was multiple designers competing for funding and no coordinated long-term plan.
The Soviet military called for a meeting with all of its space design chiefs in December of 1959. The purpose was to hear the designer’s latest proposals for new boosters. It was here that Sergei Korolev presented his plan for the N1. OKB-52 chief designer Vladimir Chelomei proposed the Universal Rocket (UR) series. OKB-586, led by former Korolev associate Mikhail Yangel, proposed a heavy-lift rocket, the R-36. The R-36 and the UR-100 were chosen for development.
In the weeks following President Kennedy’s announcement that the United States was aiming for a manned lunar mission, Korolev proposed matching that with a new spacecraft (which would become the Soyuz) launched using his N1. At that point, he was given funding for development, and the first test launch was scheduled for 1965.
At first, Korolev hoped to power his new booster with Valentin Glushko’s RD-270 engine. Korolev wanted to use a kerosene/LOX fuel mixture. Glushko intended to use the hypergolic combination of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. The two men already disliked each other, and Glushko eventually refused to work with Korolev. So Korolev enlisted the help of jet engine designer Nikolai Kuznetsov.
Chelomei proposed an alternative, a lunar flyby mission using an adapted version of the existing LK-1 spacecraft. To launch the mission, he proposed the UR-500, which would be powered by Glushko’s RD-270 engine. The Soviet’s gave Chelomei’s proposal high priority
The UR-500 rocket was launched successfully on its maiden voyage on July 16, 1965. eventually became known as the Proton, and it would become the Soviet’s primary booster. It was used to boost the first Salyut space station into orbit, as well as the Mir space station, modules of the International Space Station, and a large number of satellites.
The R-36 went through flight testing as an ICBM between 1962 and 1966. It was the first ICBM designed to put a warhead in orbit. It continued to be refined over the years, adding the ability to carry three warheads. Advanced versions of the ICBM remain in service in 2020. A version of the R-36 known as the Tsyklon (Cyclone) was used seven times to launch satellites.
But, the battle for dominance between Korolev and Chelomei was far from over.
In August of 1964, the Soviet’s accepted a new proposal from Korolev for the N1-L3. This was comprised of an even larger version of the N1 booster and the L3, which was a spacecraft made up of an adapted Soyuz, the new LK lunar lander and a set of engines. After Nikita Khrushchev was overthrown, bickering between Korolev and Chelomei and their teams resumed. In October of 1965, the government demanded a compromise. Chelomei’s UR-500 was to launch a Soyuz on a circumlunar mission in 1967. Korolev would continue to develop the N1-L3 lunar landing mission.
The N1-L3 stood 344 feet (105 m) tall, 20 feet (6 m) shorter than the Saturn V. It consisted of five stages. The first three used a kerosene/LOX fuel mixture to propel the L3 into orbit, and the second two would power the L3 into translunar injection and into lunar orbit.
The first stage, Block A, used 24 NK-15 engines arranged around the outer edge of the booster, and six more NK-15 in the core. The throttles of the outer ring of engines could be manipulated to control the booster’s attitude. Block A would burn for 125 seconds and generate 45,400 kilonewtons (kN) of thrust. In comparison, the S-I first stage of the Saturn V burned for 168 seconds and generated 33,700 kN of thrust.
The second stage, Block B, was powered by eight NK-15V engines in a single ring burning 120 seconds to generate 14,040 kN of thrust. The S-II of the Saturn V burned a mixture of LH2/LOX for 384 seconds to generate 5,141 kN of thrust.
Block V, the third stage, was powered by four NK-21 engines arranged in a square burning 370 seconds and generating 1,610 kN of thrust. The American S-IVB burned LH2/LOX for 147 seconds and generating 901 kN of thrust before it shut down the first time.
Development of the N1 was difficult in part because of the complicated arrangement of pipes needed to feed fuel and oxidizer to the thirty clustered engines of the first stage. The engines were test-fired individually, and never as a complete unit. It wasn’t until the first test launch in February of 1969 that the problems created by firing all thirty engines were revealed. And the results would be disastrous.
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