bloom america

July 14th.

Kobaliao inspected the rocket in the distance.

On the rocket launcher, the "n-1" rocket stands tall like a giant, with its tip pointing straight into the blue sky and reaching a height of more than 100 meters. It will propel the Soyuz spacecraft into space. Ground service personnel have already filled up its third-stage fuel tank.

As soon as the fuel is released, it will be launched.

Yes, the Soviets' plan to land on the moon is about to begin.

Historically, in the space competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, although on the surface it seemed that the Soviet Union had never planned a manned moon landing, and there had never been any official news media reports about it.

But in fact, this plan... did exist. However, due to technical reasons, it suffered repeated setbacks and struggled, and due to political considerations, it was abandoned, failed midway, and ended up dying before it even started.

The ending became a pain that the Soviet space experts will never let go of.

But now, it is different. The spacecraft is currently being filled with fuel. Maybe in a few days, this N-1 rocket will carry the Soyuz to the moon.

Korolyov glanced at Andropov, who was wearing glasses next to him.

Because the matter was so remarrying, Andropov also came here now.

For this launch, Andro Boda even gave the Soyuz spacecraft a name - Red Giant.

The spaceship in front of us is the Red Giant-1.

Speaking of which, the Soviet Union's journey to the moon was more than just "bumpy"...

From the very beginning, the Soviets had a "Lunar Spacecraft-1" plan.

The program was launched by Ferni Chilome, who during World War II specialized in pulse jet engines and autonomous spacecraft using pulse jet engines.

In 1944, he served as the chief designer of the first rocket factory in the former Soviet Union, and in 1959 he served as the "chief designer" of the aviation industry. Since 1961, he has been engaged in the development of a new launch vehicle, the "Proton"

The development and design of the "SS-9" missile.

On August 3, 1964, Chilome signed the preliminary design plan of the "Lunar Spacecraft-1" project. In this plan, a three-stage "Proton" rocket was used to launch a manned spacecraft around the moon. The spacecraft only carried astronauts.

An instrument cabin is installed on the top of the three-stage Proton rocket, which contains the flight propulsion system and solar cells that supply energy to the manned spacecraft. Above the instrument cabin,

It is equipped with a descent module, which looks like the American "Gemini" spacecraft. The upper part of the descent module is equipped with a solid rocket propulsion device. In the event of a failure during launch or on the eve of orbit, this device can separate the manned spacecraft from the rocket.

The development work of this plan only lasted for more than a year. At a plan demonstration meeting attended by the main designers of the Aerospace Design Bureau, Chilome's plan was not adopted and the "Moon-1" plan proposed by Cologlio

was passed.

The time has reached 23:50 at night, and there is only one hour left before the launch time.

It is impossible to say that I am not nervous.

Because just a year ago, they had already had an accident - the N-1 rocket was launched at 23:18:32 Moscow time on July 3, 1969. A few seconds after ignition, when the rocket rose to about 200 meters

At an altitude of 100, a liquid oxygen turbine mercury malfunctioned, causing the engine to shut down. Fortunately, the launch escape system worked well, and the rocket's payload bay landed safely 1km away from the launch pad. However, the rocket fell towards the launch pad and exploded.

The rocket and launch pad were destroyed at the same time.

What is shameful is that just a few days after that, the Americans successfully carried out the moon landing plan. This incident made Cologlio feel that he had lost his face.

However, because of that time in 1969, Korolev and others did not use the new N-1 rocket, but because they were too late, they adopted the old design.

So failure is natural.

But it's different now.

Since the last time, Andropov has begun to control power in this regard, so the subsequent development of the Rockets was finally resolved...

In the world before butterflies flapped their wings, the engine of the N-1 rocket had never been tested on the ground, and no test bed had even been built. The rockets ready for launch had their engines ignited for the first time in order to save time and money.

In the fierce competition to land on the moon, the Soviet Union tried to put astronauts on the moon before the United States, so it had to adopt such an approach that was eager for quick success. The results were counterproductive. During this period, the American astronauts landed on the moon first, and the Soviet Union was the first to land on the moon.

Failed miserably in the competition.

But something went wrong, because the tumor was successfully removed by the deceased Korolyov in the experiment, and Andropov used the medal to control Brezhnev.

As a result, a series of changes quietly occurred in the Soviet Union's manned aerospace journey.

Time gradually came to July 15th.

At 0:59 a.m. on July 15th.

The countdown to the final launch has finally begun.

"There are only 10 minutes left before the launch..."

At this time, Cologlio's mood could no longer calm down at all.

A few years ago, Cologlio actually hoped to cooperate with the Americans, but unfortunately, that plan ended before it was launched - in 1963, Kennedy ordered a secret plan to be launched.

Action. In order to fully express the sincerity of the United States in joint aerospace and lunar exploration, Kennedy decided to actively provide a batch of intelligence to the Soviet Union.

On November 12, 1963, Kennedy issued the confidential Target 271 National Security Action Memorandum, specifically issued to NASA Administrator James Webb, asking him to organize and plan cooperation with the Soviet Union in the field of outer space. Kennedy paid special attention to this matter.

For this reason, he specifically asked Weber to personally handle the matter, and to personally ask questions about special technical issues.