While the Saturn V made headlines shuttling US astronauts to the moon, the Soviet N1 rocket was made famous for a slightly different reason — when it blew up on takeoff it resulted in the largest, non-nuclear, man-made explosion of all time. This week’s Oobject showcases the N1 and 11 other pieces of Soviet Moon tech used in the USSR’s failed moon shot.
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One Of The Five Remaining LK Landers
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N-1 Base Showing The 30 NK-15 Engines
Note the people in the background for the massive scale.
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N1 Preparation And Launch Video
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Soviet N1 Moon Rocket Exploding
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Soviet LK Lunar Lander
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2 N1 Rockets On The Launch Pad
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Soyuz 7K-L3
This formed the orbital portion of the Russian Moon program, In conjunction with the N1 Rocket and LK lander.
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Krechet Soviet Moon Suit
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N1 Compared To Saturn V Moon Rocket
The N1 is slightly smaller and was designed to carry a maximum payload of 90 tons vs 120 tons, but it had higher thrust.
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N1 NK-33 Engine, Still Used Today
The only bit of the N1 program to survive was the NK-33 engine, which have been tested for use today, by Orbital Sciences, the company that formerly owned the satellite mapping system now used by Google Maps.
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