Zond L1S-1 was a
Zond capsule to be placed into orbit around the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
by the first launch of the
N1, 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 ...
-made
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 ...
designed to land crewed Soviet
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...
on the Moon. The Zond capsule was equipped with a dummy lander and cameras to photograph the lunar surface for possible sites of a crewed landing. The failure of the N1 launch vehicle caused the
launch escape system
A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule. It is used in the event of a critical emergency to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiri ...
to ignite, saving the Zond capsule from destruction.
Engines 12 and 24 shut down about 3 to 7 seconds after liftoff. The fault was found to be an error in the control system. The control system compensated by giving more power to the working engines. But at 25 seconds after lift off, the control system throttled back the working engines, as there was too much vibration. At an altitude of about 30 km, just 66 seconds after liftoff, the engines again were set to full power. This caused an oxidizer pipe to break open. A fire started, and the engine's turbopumps exploded.
Zond L1S-2 launched on 3 July 1969 also failed.
Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1 launched on 26 June 1971 failed. The last N-1 launch of
Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1 failed on 23 November 1972.
[Raketno-kosmicheskii kompleks N1-L3, book](_blank)
Гудилин В.Е., Слабкий Л.И. ( Слабкий Л.И.)(Gudilin V., Slabkiy L.)"Ракетно-космические системы (История. Развитие. Перспективы)",М.,1996[
][
]
NASA used the
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 for lunar missions, 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 ...
like the N-1.
See also
*
N1 (rocket)
The N1 (from , "Carrier Rocket"; Cyrillic: Н1) was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to enable crewed travel to the Mo ...
*
Soyuz Kontakt
References
{{N1-L3
Zond program
Spacecraft launched in 1969