The Soviet Moon Program

T. A. HEPPENHEIMER’S “How THE Soviets Didn’t Beat Us to the Moon” (Summer 1999) was most informative. You may be interested to know that a remnant of the Soviet Union’s N-1 rocket is still around, and there are plans to use its engines once again.

Upon cancellation of the N-1 program, orders were given to scrap all the parts of the launcher, but the engineers who developed the rocket motors placed them in a storage facility, locked the door, and “forgot” about the key. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the motors have found their way into Western hands to power the Kistler K-1 Reusable Launch Vehicle, now in development. Each K-1 is to be powered by three NK-33s on the first stage and one NK-43 on the second stage.

Considerable work has been completed, but adequate funding has continued to elude Kistler Aerospace, and most of the work is currently suspended. Only time will tell when the N-1’s legacy will fly once again.