Soyuz 7K-L1E was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

uncrewed modified

Soyuz 7K-L1 Soyuz 7K-L1 "Zond" spacecraft was designed to launch cosmonaut, cosmonauts from the Earth to circle the Moon without going into lunar orbit in the context of the Soviet crewed lunar programs, Soviet crewed Moon-flyby program in the Moon race. ...

spacecraft. Also called a dummy

Soyuz 7K-LOK The Soyuz 7K-LOK, or simply LOK ( meaning "Lunar Orbital Craft") was a Soviet crewed spacecraft designed to take humans from Earth to orbit the Moon, developed in parallel to the 7K-L1. The LOK would carry two cosmonauts, acting as a mother ship ...

. Two were built, one Soyuz 7K-L1E was successfully launched into

Low Earth Orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

Proton rocket Proton (, formal designation: UR-500) is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965. Modern versions of the launch system are still in use , making it ...

and is known as Kosmos 382. The other Soyuz 7K-L1E was placed on a N1 rocket, which failed at launch. The

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

was first used in 1967 as the main crewed spacecraft of the Soviet Union and is still in use today. Many Soyuz variations have been built and the Soyuz 7K-L1E was an uncrewed variation.

Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1

Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1 was launched on 26 June 1971 at 23:15:08 (11:15pm Moscow time) from

Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 110 Site 110 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome is a launch facility which was used by the N1 rocket during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and by the Energia rocket during the 1980s. Site Site 110 consists of two launch pads: The right (or east) pad, calle ...

/37. The spacecraft was built to test the

Blok D Blok D () is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 320 launched rockets . By 2002 its modification Bl ...

rocket and the

N-1 rocket The N1 (from , "Carrier Rocket"; Cyrillic: En (Cyrillic), Н1) was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet Union, Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to en ...

. This was the third launch of the N-1. The previous two N-1 launches had failed. The N-1 Rocket was a

super heavy-lift launch vehicle A super heavy-lift launch vehicle is a rocket that can lift to low Earth orbit a "super heavy payload", which is defined as more than by the United States and as more than by Russia. It is the most capable launch vehicle classification by mass ...

design to go to the moon, as a counterpart to the U.S.

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

rocket in the

space race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...

. The first stage of the N-1 serial 6L failed at launch. The Soyuz 7K-L1E had no escape rescue system and was lost. The Block D was designed to work with the N-1 to take the LK lunar lander to near the surface of the Moon. The Block D stage is still in use, but is used atop a Proton rocket. Had Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1 worked the upper stage was planned to go through maneuvers simulating those that would be used on a lunar mission. The Block D rocket would have taken the LK lunar lander to near the surface of the Moon.

Soyuz 7K-L1E No.2

Soyuz 7K-L1E No.2 was an uncrewed Soyuz 7K-L1, launched on a Proton, with an N-1 upper stage and the Soyuz 7K-L1E control spacecraft into Earth orbit on 2 December 1970. This flight was a success and was then designated "Cosmos 382" - "Kosmos 382". Kosmos being the title given Soviet

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

s since 1962. Kosmos-382 carried experiments and simulating the lunar orbit insertion burn, for planned later crewed missions to the Moon.

References

External links

Kosmos 382 @ Gunther's Space Page
{{Orbital launches in 1970 Spacecraft launched in 1971 Spacecraft launched in 1970 1970 in spaceflight 1971 in spaceflight

Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1

Soyuz 7K-L1E No.2

See also

References

External links