The N1 launch vehicle was designed to handle true heavy-lift missions. This meant lifting over 80,000 kg into low Earth orbit. Soviet engineers started working on the project in the early 1960s. They needed raw power.
Then things changed. In 1964 the Soviet Union decided to race the United States. The goal was simple. Beat America to a first lunar landing. This became the only mission for the N1.
The machine was massive. The vehicle and its L3 lunar landing spacecraft stood 105 metres tall. Fully fueled the weight hit 2,735,000 kg. That is 6 million pounds.
Lifting that much weight required brute force. The rocket needed 44,000 kilonewtons of thrust. To get it designers used 30 small rocket engines. They fired in unison.
There were four launch attempts. They happened between February 1969 and November 1972. All of them failed.
The second test was the worst. On July 3 1969 the vehicle exploded on the launchpad. It destroyed the rocket. It caused a two year delay. The program never recovered.
The N1 program was canceled in 1974.
