WHAT WENT WRONG?

How did the Soviet Union lose its early lead in the Space Race and fail to send cosmonauts to the Moon? Since all of the N-1 failures occurred in the 30-engine first stage, Western analysts have speculated that the Soviets were unable to develop a sufficiently powerful and reliable rocket engine in time to beat the United States to the Moon.

Recently released diaries and memoirs of Soviet participants suggest that other problems also contributed to the N-1 failures. For example, in 1966 Mishin noted several deficiencies in the Soviet space program, including problems with the supply of hardware components, absence of a national space agency, low priority of the manned lunar program, and lack of a long-term master plan for space exploration.

Courtesy of The Perot Foundation

N-1 ROCKET

The N-1 was a three-stage giant, with 30 rocket engines clustered in the first stage, 8 second-stage engines, and 4 third-stage engines, plus two single-engine stages for the spacecraft payload. The airframe was open between stages to vent exhaust, because each upper stage ignited before the lower one was jettisoned. Propellants for all stages were kerosene and liquid oxygen.

Ten N-1s were built. Four were destroyed in failed test launches, and the others were dismantled when the program was canceled in 1974.

1:48 scale model

Model made and donated by David Gianakos