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N1 launch vehicle At the end of the 1950s, the OKB-1 design bureau led by Sergei Korolev began development of a super-heavy rocket booster, later designated N1. Originally, it was proposed as a multipurpose vehicle for a variety of military and scientific tasks, including launches of space stations, expeditions to the Moon and even a potential human missions to Mars. In its early incarnation, the giant rocket was expected to deliver 75 tons of payload to the low Earth orbit.
The N1 project was ultimately approved by the Kremlin for a single mission -- to beat America to the Moon. However, the N1's catastrophic failures during four test launches on Feb. 21 and July 3, 1969, June 27, 1971, and Nov. 23, 1972, doomed the Soviet effort to land a man on the Moon and left the ill-fated rocket under a veil of secrecy for almost two decades. Test launches of the N1 rocket Feb. 21, 1969: The first test launch of the N1 rocket (Vehicle No. 3L) carrying a 7K-L1A (7K-L1S) spacecraft failed 68.7 seconds after liftoff from Site 110 in Tyuratam. July 3, 1969: The second test launch of the N1 rocket (Vehicle No. 5L) carrying a 7K-L1A (7K-L1S) spacecraft failed at liftoff from Site 110 in Tyuratam. June 27, 1971: The third launch of the N1 rocket (Vehicle No. 6L) carrying dummy LOK and LK spacecraft failed at 50.1 seconds after liftoff from the left pad at Site 110 in Tyuratam. Nov. 23, 1972: The fourth launch of the N1 rocket (Vehicle No. 7L) carrying an operational LOK spacecraft and a mockup of the LK lunar module failed about 107 seconds after liftoff from Site 110 in Tyuratam.
N1-L3 system overview:
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Overview of the N1 family:
Major contractors in the N1 poject:
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