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Space History Chronology (through 2018)
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Space Activity by Country
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The Hard Road to Space One third of manned spaceflights suffer major problems that threaten completion of the mission and the life of ...
Phantom Cosmonaut Over the years the Western press named a number of cosmonauts that were never acknowledged by the Soviet Union. ...
Shuguang 1 Chinese manned spacecraft. Cancelled 1972. Shuguang-1 (Dawn-1) was China"s first manned spacecraft design.
Your Flight Has Been Cancelled.... Is what might have been better than what was? Would America have beaten the Russians into space or even into orbit? Would the Russians have beat America to the moon?
Big Gemini American manned spacecraft. Reached mockup stage 1967.
Soyuz 5 Two crew transferred to and returned in Soyuz 4. Remaining astronaut barely survived nose-first reentry of Soyuz ...
Soyuz: Was the Design Stolen? There was something awfully familiar looking about the Soyuz spacecraft, the most successful in history....
Yantar Series of Russian surveillance satellites, based on the Yantar bus developed by Kozlov in Samara in the 1970"s.
The Wrong Stuff - A Catalogue of Launch Vehicle Failures The hard road to space...
WS-117 Weapons System 117 was develped from 1955 as the first US military space system. The Atlas ICBM would use a second ...
SLS BC-2720 American orbital launch vehicle. The BC-2720 was the member of the SLS family selected to boost the Air Force ...
Shenzhou Chinese manned spacecraft. The Chinese Shenzhou manned spacecraft resembled the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, but ...
Soyuz 1 Space disaster that put back Soviet lunar program 18 months. Soyuz 1 was to dock with Soyuz 2 and transfer crew. ...
Vostok 1 First manned spaceflight, one orbit of the earth. Strap attaching service module failed to separate from capsule, ...
Shuttle The manned reusable space system which was designed to slash the cost of space transport and replace all expendable ...
SSME Rocketdyne LOx/LH2 rocket engine. In production. Space Shuttle Main Engines; only high-pressure closed-cycle reusable ...
Space Cruiser American manned combat spacecraft. Study 1973. The space cruiser was a US Navy design for a single-place crewed ...
Collection Families of spacecraft, launch vehicles, missiles, by type or category.
Titan American orbital launch vehicle. The Titan launch vehicle family was developed by the United States Air Force ...
X-15A American air-launched manned spaceplane, used for hypersonic research. 174 launches, 1959.06.08 (X-15 Flight 1) ...
TKS Vladimir Chelomei"s TKS manned ferry vehicle was designed to provide a reusable resupply and crew return spacecraft ...
Thor American liquid propellant intermediate range ballistic missile, developed by Douglas in 1956-1958. 60 deployed ...
USA - Space Stations Wernher von Braun brought Noordung"s rotating station design with him from Europe. This he popularized in the ...
Mir The Mir space station was the last remnant of the once mighty Soviet space program. The core module was launched ...
Salyut The world"s first space station, developed in one year by the Soviet Union on the basis of Chelomei"s Almaz station, ...
Spiral 50-50 Russian winged orbital launch vehicle. The Soviet Air Force had an enduring interest in a horizontal takeoff/horizontal ...
Spaced Out Spaceflight is dangerous and unforgiving, which is all the more reason for the astronauts to seek relief in humour...
STS The Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) was conceived originally as a completely reusable system that ...
Voskhod 3 Manned space flight deferred just 15 days before launch in May 1966. It would have been a world-record 18-day ...
Soyuz VI Russian manned combat spacecraft. Cancelled 1965. To determine the usefulness of manned military space flight, ...
Rescue In the early 1960"s, in the hey-day of the X-20 Dynasoar, it seemed that the US military would naturally keep ...
The Road to Sputnik The real story of the race to space
Winged In the beginning, nobody (except Jules Verne) thought anybody would be travelling to space and back in ballistic ...
RSA South African orbital launch vehicle. Israel and South Africa collaborated closely in rocket technology in the ...
MKBS Russian manned space station. Cancelled 1974. The culmination of ten years of designs for N1-launched space stations, ...
Titan C American orbital launch vehicle. The Titan C, a Titan II booster stage topped by a new liquid oxygen/hydrogen ... part1part2part3part4
Navaho SSM-A-2 American intermediate range cruise missile. The first version of the Navaho developed in 1946-1950 was a Mach-3 ...
Mars Cycler American manned Mars flyby. Study 1989. As part of a space infrastructure, it was proposed that four space stations ...
Buran M-42 Russian intercontinental cruise missile. Cancelled 1957. Several variants of the Myasishchev Buran trisonic intercontinental ...
Australia Australia
France France
Barre French rocket pioneer and space visionary, who developed the EA-1941 rocket in France before work was interrupted ...
Soyuz 7K-S Russian manned spacecraft. The Soyuz 7K-S had its genesis in military Soyuz designs of the 1960's. Launched 1974 ...
R-9 ICBM developed by Korolev OKB using liquid oxygen/kerosene propellants. The Soviet military favored storable propellants ...
R-36M The super-heavy Ukrainian R-36M ICBM replaced the R-36 in 288 existing silos and was additionally installed in ...
Trident American submarine-launched ballistic missile. US Navy submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which superseded ...
Temp-2S Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. World's first operational mobile ICBM. Deployed in great secrecy in ...
DS The DS ('Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik') small satellite bus was developed by Yangel's OKB-586 / KB Yuzhnoye in the Ukraine ...
Tiangong Chinese man-tended space laboratory. A series of three of these laboratories were to visited by a series of Shenzhou ...
Rombus American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. Bono original design for ballistic single-stage-to-orbit (not quite ...
NASA's Lost Boilerplate - The Story of BP-1227 In 2002 the Encyclopedia Astronautica uncovered the forgotten story of the recovery of an Apollo capsule by ...
Trident D-5 American intercontinental range, submarine-launched ballistic missile. Deployed March 1990 aboard the new Ohio-class ...
Cost, Price, and the Whole Darn Thing Why the cost of a space launch vehicle has little if any relation to the launch price.
Spacehab American manned space station module. Spacehab, Inc was founded by Bob Citron in 1982 in Houston. It was the only ...
Space Station Freedom American manned space station. Design as of 1988. NASA's first detailed cost assessment for the US space station ...
Winged Gemini American manned spaceplane. Study 1966. Winged Gemini was the most radical modification of the basic Gemini reentry ...
A7L ILC Dover spacesuit used for the Apollo and Skylab programs, operational 1968. Hamilton Standard had overall development ...
THAAD American anti-ballistic missile. Theatre High-Altitude Air Defense. SDIO/BMDO project. Single stage vehicle.
Redstone Redstone was the first large liquid rocket developed in the US using German V-2 technology. Originally designated ...
Saturn IB American orbital launch vehicle. Improved Saturn I, with uprated first stage and Saturn IVB second stage (common ...
RS-XXX Rocketdyne LOx/LH2 rocket engine. Design concept -2004. New high-thrust cryogenic engine concept for Next Generation ...
HL-20 American manned spaceplane. The HL-20 was a 1988 NASA Langley design for a manned spaceplane as a backup to the ...
RL-10B-2 Pratt and Whitney LOx/LH2 rocket engine. In production. Used on Delta 3 , Delta IV launch vehicles. First flight ...
Jules Verne Moon Gun French gun-launched orbital launch vehicle. Jules Verne's moon gun, as described in his 1865 novel From the ...
Gemini 3 First spacecraft to maneuver in orbit. First manned flight of Gemini spacecraft. First American to fly twice into ...
Molniya-1 Russian military communications satellite. This was the first Soviet communications satellite. Communication satellite ...
Star-raker American winged orbital launch vehicle. Rockwell International's Star-raker was an enormous 1979 heavy-lift ramjet/rocket ...
Atlas V American orbital launch vehicle. The Atlas V launch vehicle system was a completely new design that succeeded ...
ISS International Space Station. Development from 1994. Assembled in orbit over 13 years, 1998-2011. To be operated ...
F-1 Rocketdyne LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. Largest liquid rocket engine ever developed and flown. Severe combustion ...
Olivas American engineer mission specialist astronaut 1998-2010.
AJ-260-2 Aerojet solid rocket engine. 260 inch solid rocket booster half length. The version tested and also proposed for ...
Von Braun Lunar Lander American manned lunar lander. Study 1952. Von Braun's first lunar lander design was an immense spacecraft, larger ...
Babylon Gun From March of 1988 until the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Iraq contracted with Gerard Bull to build three superguns: ...
Gemini 8 First docking of two spacecraft. After docking with Agena target, a stuck thruster aboard Gemini resulted in the ...
Suborbital Cabin Russian manned spacecraft. In 1956 Korolev laid out an outline plan 'Fast Solutions for the Conquest of Space'. ...
Axster German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter.
Bio-Suit American space suit, study of 2001. Novel approach that used biomedical breakthroughs in skin replacement and ...
Vanguard American orbital launch vehicle. Vanguard was the 'civilian' vehicle developed by the US Navy to launch America's ...
Gemini 9 Third rendezvous mission of Gemini program. Agena target blew up on way to orbit; substitute target's shroud hung ...
Mercury Space Suit American space suit, operational 1960. The Mercury spacesuit was a custom-fitted, modified version of the Goodrich ...
Apollo 9 First manned test of the Lunar Module. First test of the Apollo space suits. First manned flight of a spacecraft ...
Paris Gun German gun-launched missile. The Paris Gun of World War I could hurl a 120 kg shell with 7 kg of explosive to ...
Apollo Martin 410 American manned lunar lander. Study 1961. The Model 410 was Martin's preferred design for the Apollo spacecraft.
RD-170 Glushko LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. Energia strap-on. Developed 1973-1985. First flight 1987. Used one-plane gimballing ...
Kliper Russian manned spaceplane. Study 2004. The Kliper manned spacecraft replacement for Soyuz was first announced ...
Baikonur Russia's largest cosmodrome, the only one used for manned launches and with facilities for the larger Proton, ...
von Braun concept vehicle In 1948, with the US Army's V-2 test project winding down, Wernher Von Braun was ensconced in isolated Fort Bliss. ...
New Shepard American manned spacecraft. Flight tests begun 2006. Vertical takeoff/vertical landing suborbital tourist spacecraft ...
Apollo 8 First manned flight to lunar orbit. Speed (10,807 m/s) and altitude (378,504 km) records. Mission resulted from ...
A-4b German intermediate range boost-glide missile. Winged version of the V-2 missile with over double the range. Two ...
Gemini 7 Record flight duration (14 days) to that date. Incredibly boring mission, made more uncomfortable by the extensive ...
Shepard American test pilot astronaut 1959-1974. First American in space. Grounded on medical grounds during Gemini, but ...
The Nedelin Catastrophe James Oberg's classic account of the greatest disaster in space history.
J-2 Rocketdyne LOx/LH2 rocket engine. Used in the Saturn IVB stage in Saturn IB and Saturn V, and the Saturn II stage ...
X-33 American winged rocketplane. NASA-sponsored suborbital unmanned prototype for a single-stage-to-orbit rocketplane. ...
X-15A-2 American manned spaceplane. The crash-damaged X-15 number 2 was rebuilt to attain even higher speeds. The body ...
Megaroc In December 1946 R A Smith proposed launch of a British pilot into space atop a heavily modified V-2. The proposal ...
A9/A10/A11/A12 German orbital launch vehicle. The A12 has been named as the designation for a true orbital launch vehicle, as ...
Orion CEV The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was NASA's manned spacecraft for the 21st Century, a throwback to the ...
Cape Canaveral America's largest launch center, used for all manned launches. Today only six of the 40 launch complexes built ...
Atlas V Heavy American orbital launch vehicle. Heavy-lift version of the Atlas V launch vehicle system with three parallel 3.8-m-diameter ...
Mercury American single-crew manned spacecraft. Mercury was America's first man-in-space project, but ran second in the ...
Escafandra Estratonautica Spanish pressure suit. Spanish Colonel Don Emilio Herrera Linares designed and built a full pressure suit in 1935, ...
orbital launch vehicle Category of launch vehicles.
SASSTO American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. Bono proposal for first step toward VTOVL SSTO vehicle - heavily modified ...
UR-900 Russian heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. In 1962 Vladimir Chelomei proposed a family of modular launch vehicles. ...
Apollo 16 Second Apollo mission with lunar rover. CSM main engine failure detected in lunar orbit. Landing almost aborted.
Salyut 1 Russian manned space station. Salyut 1 was the first DOS long duration orbital station, an Almaz spaceframe modified ...
Navstar The Navstar GPS (Global Positioning System) program was a joint service effort directed by the United States Department ...
X-15B American manned spacecraft. Study 1958. North American's proposal for the Air Force initial manned space project ...
Blackstar American manned spaceplane. 2006 reports claimed it was flown covertly in the 1990s. If so, it may have derived ...
Saturn C-8 American orbital launch vehicle. The largest member of the Saturn family ever contemplated. Designed for direct ...
Atlas D American intercontinental ballistic missile. Rocket used both as a space launcher and ICBM.
Gemini 12 First completely successful space walk. Final Gemini flight. Docked and redocked with Agena, demonstrating various ...
Sea Horse American sea-launched test vehicle. The second phase of Sea Launch was to demonstrate the concept on a larger ...
Saturn V-4X(U) American orbital launch vehicle. Boeing study, 1968. Four core vehicles from Saturn V-25(S) study lashed together ...
Minuteman 3 American four-stage solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile. In the 21st Century, the sole remaining ...
Newton's Orbital Cannon British gun-launched orbital launch vehicle. Isaac Newton discussed the use of a cannon to attain orbit in 1687 ...
Soyuz TMA Russian three-crew manned spacecraft. Designed for use as a lifeboat for the International Space Station. After ...
DC-X The Space Defense Initiative Office's Single Stage Rocket Technology program of 1990-1995 demonstrated technology ...
R-4D Marquardt N2O4/MMH rocket engine. Developed as attitude control thruster for the Apollo Service and Lunar Modules ...
MON/MMH MON/MMH propellant. No rocket engines went into production using this propellant combination.
UR-700M Russian heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. In 1969 the Soviet Union began project Aelita, studying the best method ...
Almaz OPS Russian manned space station. Vladimir Chelomei's Almaz OPS was the only manned military space station ever actually ...
MOOSE American manned rescue spacecraft. Study 1963. MOOSE was perhaps the most celebrated bail-out from orbit system ...
Vandenberg Vandenberg Air Force Base is located on the Central Coast of California about 240 km northwest of Los Angeles. ...
Tikhonravov Suborbital Soviet space pioneer Tikhonravov proposed a V-2-launched manned capsule to Stalin in June 1946. Had his plan been ...
Jupiter IRBM American intermediate range ballistic missile. The Jupiter IRBM was developed for the US Army. By the time development ...
Gemini 6 First rendezvous of two spacecraft. Originally was to dock with an Agena target, but this blew up on way to orbit. ...
Atlas LV-3B / Mercury American orbital launch vehicle. Atlas D modified for use in Project Mercury.
Von Braun 1952 German winged orbital launch vehicle. Von Braun's 1952 design for a reusable space launcher used the same mass ...
RL-10 Pratt and Whitney LOx/LH2 rocket engine family. First flight 1961. Originally planned for use in Centaur upper ...
Black Brant The Black Brant originated in a 1957 Canadian government requirement for a sounding rocket to characterize the ...
Apollo 10 Final dress rehearsal in lunar orbit for landing on moon. LM separated and descended to 10 km from surface of ...
Mir-2 Russian manned space station. Study 1989. The Mir-2 space station was originally authorized in the February 1976 ...
F-1A Rocketdyne LOx/Kerosene rocket engine design of 1968. Improved version of the F-1, which would have been used ...
Rockoon American air-launched sounding rocket. The Rockoon (balloon-launched rocket) consisted of a small high-performance ...
IMIS 1968 American manned Mars expedition. Study 1968. In January 1968 Boeing issued a report that was the result of a 14 ...
MiG 105-11 Russian manned spaceplane. 8 launches, 1976.10.11 to 1978.09.15 . Atmospheric flight test version of the Spiral ...
Gemini 5 First American flight to seize duration record from Soviet Union. Mission plan curtailed due to fuel cell problems; ...
M-1 Aerojet LOx/LH2 rocket engine. Study 1961. Engine developed 1962-1966 for Uprated Saturn and Nova million-pound ...
Saturn C-5N American nuclear orbital launch vehicle. Version of Saturn C-5 considered with small nuclear thermal stage in ...
Project Orion: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth 20,000 tonne Mars Expeditions Using Atom Bomb Propulsion - We could have sent whole cities there by 1970 - the ...
Saenger II Proposed two stage to orbit vehicle. Air-breathing hypersonic first stage and delta wing second stage. The German ...
Apollo 14 Third manned lunar landing. Only Mercury astronaut to reach moon. Five attempts to dock the command module with ...
Sprint ABM Nuclear-armed point defense anti-ballistic missile, an incredible high-acceleration weapon that would intercept ...
Aerobee American sounding rocket. In late 1945 James Van Allen was assigned by John Hopkins University to survey sounding ...
Titan I American intercontinental ballistic missile. ICBM, built as back-up to Atlas, using two stages instead of one ...
Komarov Russian pilot cosmonaut 1960-1967. First person to die during spaceflight when the parachute lines of Soyuz 1 ...
Titan IIIE American orbital launch vehicle. Titan 3D with Centaur D-1T upper stage. Used by NASA for deep space missions ...
Hyperion SSTO American sled-launched SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. Study 1966. Yet another of Philip Bono's single-stage-to-orbit ...
Voskhod 2 First space walk. Speed and altitude records. A disaster: astronaut unable to reenter airlock due to spacesuit ...
Resnik American engineer mission specialist astronaut 1978-1986. Engineer. Died in Challenger accident.
RS-68 Rocketdyne LOx/LH2 rocket engine. In production. First new large liquid-fueled rocket engine developed in America ...
LFV North American American manned lunar flyer. Cancelled 1969. The North American design for a Lunar Flying Vehicle would have taken ...
von Braun German-American chief designer, leader of the 'Rocket Team'; developed the V-2, Redstone, Jupiter, and the Saturn ...
TMK-1 Russian manned Mars flyby. Study 1959. In 1959 a group of enthusiasts in OKB-1 Section 3 under the management ...
XLR99 Reaction Motors Lox/Ammonia rocket engine. Out of production. The first large, man-rated, throttleable, restartable ...
Draeger Suit German pressure suit, developed 1935-1945. Draeger-Werke developed a hard shell full pressure suit for the Nazi ...
Gemini 4 First American space walk. First American long-duration spaceflight. Astronaut could barely get back into capsule ...
Gemini Technical Description Gemini System Details
Apollo (ASTP) First international joint manned space mission; first docking between two spacecraft launched from different countries. ...
Gemini Lunar Surface Rescue Spacecraft American manned lunar lander. Study 1966. This version of Gemini would allow a direct manned lunar landing mission ...
Seabee American sea-launched test vehicle. Seabee was a brief proof of principle program to validate the sea-launch concept ...
Falcon 9 American low cost orbital launch vehicle. In September 2006 SpaceX was named as one of two winners of the NASA ...
Gagarin Russian pilot cosmonaut 1960-1968. First person in space. Due to his fame, the Soviet leadership did not want ...
BIS Lunar Lander British manned lunar lander. Study 1939. Design of the British Interplanetary Society's BIS Spaceship began in ...
Black Arrow British orbital launch vehicle. Britain's only indigenous launch vehicle. Following cancellation of the project ...
Ilyushin Russian test pilot. Most tangible phantom cosmonaut, purported first man in orbit according to French press report ...
Delta 4H American orbital launch vehicle. Heavy lift all-cryogenic launch vehicle using two Delta-4 core vehicles as first ...
J-2S Rocketdyne LOx/LH2 rocket engine. Developed 1965-1969. J-2 version proposed for Saturn follow-on vehicles, using ...
Vostok 6 Joint flight with Vostok 5. First woman in space. Tereshkova did not reply during several communications sessions. ...
Hughes-Fulford American biologist payload specialist astronaut 1984-1991. Biochemist. US Army
Nexus American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. Early 1960's recoverable launch vehicle proposed by Krafft Ehricke ...
X-38 American manned spaceplane. Lifting body reentry vehicle designed as emergency return spacecraft for International ...
Plesetsk Plesetsk was the Soviet Union's northern cosmodrome, used for polar orbit launches of mainly military satellites, ...
MK-700 Russian manned Mars flyby. Study 1972. Chelomei was the only Chief Designer to complete an Aelita draft project ...
Kvant Russian manned space station module. Kvant 1). The Kvant spacecraft represented the first use of a new kind of ...
German Rocketplanes German manned rocketplane family.
Taming the Fire The story of the making of the 1972 Soviet film that took viewers inside the life of Sergei Korolev and the Baikonur ...
R-14 Ukrainian intermediate range ballistic missile. The R-14, with a range of 3600 km, was the only missile of that ...
V-1000 Russian anti-ballistic missile. First Soviet anti-ballistic missile system. Development began in 1956 and the ...
Cuxhaven As the only site in Germany with an unrestricted over-water firing sector over the North Sea, Cuxhaven was once ...
Ariane First successful European commercial launch vehicle, developed from the L3S, an Europa launch vehicle replacement ...
Mars 5NM Russian Mars lander. Cancelled 1974. The 5NM was the first attempt by the Lavochkin bureau to design and fly a ...
Soviets Recovered an Apollo Capsule! - 2008 version In 2002 this web site broke the story that the Soviet Union had recovered an Apollo capsule in 1969 and returned ...
R-3 Korolev 3000 km range intermediate range ballistic missile. Developed April 1947 to 1949 before cancellation.
White Sands White Sands Missile Range occupies an area 160 x 65 km in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico, across the ...
Latest
The Rocketeer Who Never Was
NASA histories say that the first American rocket-powered aircraft flight was made by William Swan at Atlantic City on January 4, 1931. But the launch was made in June and Swan was not his real name. He made the first air-launched rocket aircraft flight in 1932. In 1933 he bailed from an aircraft over Boca Chica, Texas, now the site of the SpaceX Starship launch facility, disappeared into the clouds, and was never seen again. Where had he come from? Where did he go? It was only in the 21st Century that the life story of Swan was revealed.
Oberg Corner
The latest from Jim Oberg, the dean of American space historians.
The Mishin Diaries
Podsadka - Failed Plan to Win the Moon Race Podsadka was a secret plan to use a two-launch scheme to shoot the first Soviet crew around the moon. The reason for the puzzling Soyuz manned launches in 1966-1969 are revealed to be tests of this scheme. The effort was bandoned after Apollo 8 orbited the moon and the L1 program was cancelled.
N1-L3: Two Launches to Get One Man on the Moon The single-launch approach to the moon landing sold to the Soviet leadership was unachievable due to payload shortfalls and safety considerations. By the time of America's first landing on the moon, it had degenerated into a two-launch scheme. The first launch would deliver a Ye-8-2 robot rover to place a homing beacon at a safe location for the manned landing; and a reserve unmanned LK-R lander to provide a way home in case the primary LK lander failed on the lunar surface. The second launch would result in the single-crew LK lander setting down near the beacon and reserve lander...
MKBS - Secret Origin of Mir and Soyuz T The MKBS was an N1-launched, nuclear-powered orbital battle station that would assure Soviet dominance of space through use of beam weapons. It was developed in 1969-1974, only to be ended when the N1 booster necessary to put it in orbit was cancelled. However the spacecraft and systems developed for it became the basis for the Soviet manned space program of the 1970's and 1980's.
Man-in-Space Soonest - The canceled USAF project to put a man in orbit by 1960 - a year ahead of the Russians!
Bono In the 1960's Philip Bono proposed a series of innovative designs that would enable airline-like access to space. ...
Russian Lunar Program
Soviet Lunar Projects The Russians began three years later in competing with Apollo, and wasted time in competing efforts and internal wrangling.
Soyuz 7K-L1 Russian manned lunar flyby spacecraft which would have beat Americans around the moon if not for intractable technical failures...
Russia: Why did the Soviet Union lose the Moon Race? The reasons the Americans were first on the moon, as given by the major Soviet participants.
The Real Moon Landing Hoax How the Soviet Union fooled the world into believing it wasn't in the moon race.
Soyuz 7K-LOK The two-crew LOK lunar orbiting spacecraft was to be placed in lunar orbit before the Americans. One cosmonaut would transfer to the
LK lunar lander and plant the Soviet flag on the moon.
Luna Ye-8-5 When it was clear the LK would not be ready in time, this robotic lunar lander was built in a crash program to return a sample of lunar soil to earth before Apollo 11 mission.
N1 The N1 launch vehicle, developed by Russia in the 1960's, was to be the Soviet Union's counterpart to the Saturn V and send Soviet cosmonauts to a lunar landing.
Russian Alternatives
LK-1 Chelomei's manned circumlunar spacecraft. Underway when cancelled in favor of Korolev's L1....
LK-700 Chelomei's direct-landing alternative to Korolev's L3 manned lunar landing design. ...
UR-700 The UR-700 was the member of Vladimir Chelomei's Universal Rocket family designed to take two Soviet cosmonauts on a direct flight to the moon.
R-56 Ukrainian heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. The R-56 was Yangel's ultimate superbooster design for the lunar mission in competition with the N1 and UR-700.
American Lunar Program
Apollo Lunar Landing American project that resulted in an American being the first (and only) human to walk on the moon. Begun in 1962; first landing on the moon 1969; sixth and final lunar landing in 1972. Hardware was available for three further missions, but program was cancelled due to risk, the Soviets getting out of the race, and loss of public support and interest.
Apollo 7 First manned test of the Apollo spacecraft. Although the systems worked well, the crew became grumpy with head colds and talked back to the ground. As a result, NASA management determined that none of them would fly again.
Apollo 503 Cancelled Apollo E mission - test of the Apollo lunar module in high earth orbit. Lunar module was not ready. Instead mission flown only with CSM into lunar orbit as Apollo 8.
Apollo 8 First manned flight to lunar orbit. Speed (10,807 m/s) and altitude (378,504 km) records. Mission resulted from audacious decision to send crew around moon to beat Soviets on only second manned Apollo CSM mission and third Saturn V launch.
Apollo 9 First manned test of the Lunar Module. First test of the Apollo space suits. First manned flight of a spacecraft incapable of returning to earth. If rendezvous of the Lunar Module with the Apollo CSM had failed, crew would have been stranded in orbit.
Apollo 10 Final dress rehearsal in lunar orbit for landing on moon. LM separated and descended to 10 km from surface of moon but did not land. Speed record (11,107 m/s).
Apollo 11 First manned lunar landing. The end of the moon race and public support for large space programs. The many changes made after the Apollo 204 fire paid off; all went according to plan, virtually no problems.
Saturn V American orbital launch vehicle. America's booster for the Apollo manned lunar landing.
Apollo CSM The Apollo Command Service Module was the spacecraft developed by NASA in the 1960's as a standard spacecraft but ended up being built only for the lunar landing mission.
Apollo LM American manned lunar lander.
American Alternatives
Lunar Gemini The Gusmobile might have gotten on the moon faster, quicker, cheaper (but not better...)
Apollo D-2 American manned lunar orbiter. Study 1962. The General Electric design for Apollo put all systems and space not ...
Nova Nova was NASA"s ultimate launch vehicle, studied intently from 1959 to 1962, conceived to allow a direct manned lunar landing...
Other Stuff
Sea Dragon American sea-launched heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. Sea Dragon was an immense, sea-launched, two-stage launch ...
Sputnik 2 Russian biology satellite.
Manned V-2 While the V-2 rocket could not achieve orbit, it was capable of putting a man into space on a suborbital trajectory. ...
Apollo 18 Apollo 18 was originally planned in July 1969 to land in the moon's Schroter's Valley, a river-like channel-way. ...
A Brief History of the HARP Project Richard K Graf's account of the Canadian 1960's project to launch satellites from a 16 inch gun...
Lox/LH2 Lox/LH2 propellant.to be used on production space launch vehicles. Liquid oxygen was the earliest, cheapest, safest, ...
V-2 The V-2 ballistic missile (known to its designers as the A4) was the world's first operational liquid fuel rocket. ...
Space Suits To explore and work in space, human beings must take their environment with them because there is no atmospheric ...
Lox/Kerosene Lox/Kerosene propellant. Liquid oxygen was the earliest, cheapest, safest, and eventually the preferred oxidizer ...
Saturn I American orbital launch vehicle. Von Braun launch vehicle known as 'Cluster's Last Stand' - 8 Redstone tanks around ...
Apollo 11 First manned lunar landing. The end of the moon race and public support for large space programs. The many changes ...
By Gemini to Mars! In the 1960's many considered use of the cramped two-man Gemini reentry vehicle for journeys to the moon problematic. ...
N2O4/UDMH N2O4/UDMH propellant. Nitrogen tetroxide became the storable liquid propellant of choice from the late 1950's. ...
Adam American manned spacecraft. In early 1958 Wernher von Braun proposed launching an American aboard an Army Redstone ...
Buran Russian manned spaceplane which represented a huge leap in Soviet space technology and project management. Buran ...
Gemini American manned spacecraft. Gemini was conceived as an 'upgraded Mercury' to test essential orbital maneuvering, ...
N2O4/MMH N2O4/MMH propellant. Monomethylhydrazine (MMH) is a storable liquid fuel that found favor in the United States ...
Pye Wacket Pye Wacket was the code name for a flying saucer-shaped air-to-air missile being developed by the US Air Force ...
Dynasoar American manned spaceplane. Cancelled 1963. The X-20A Dynasoar (Dynamic Soarer) was a single-pilot manned reusable ...
Titan II American intercontinental ballistic missile. ICBM, developed also as the launch vehicle for the manned Gemini ...
Where Have All the Astronauts Gone? The public pays little attention to manned space flight and seems to believe that little has changed. They see ...
Almaz Vladimir Chelomei's Almaz was the only manned military spacecraft ever actually flown. The project continued through ...
Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1969 American manned Mars expedition. Study 1969. Von Braun's final vision for a manned expedition to Mars was a robust ...
R-7 Russian intercontinental ballistic missile and launch vehicle series. The world's first ICBM and first orbital ...
Apollo 17 Final Apollo lunar landing mission. First geologist to walk on the moon.
Proton The Proton launch vehicle has been the medium-lift workhorse of the Soviet and Russian space programs for over ...
H2O2/Kerosene H2O2/Kerosene propellant. Hydrogen peroxide was used as an oxidizer with kerosene in the 1950's in British rockets. ...
Skylab American manned space station. First US space station. The project began life as the Orbital Workshop- outfitting ...
Apollo 13 Fuel cell tank exploded en route to the moon, resulting in loss of all power and oxygen. Only through use of the ...
Energia Version of the Energia using the core vehicle without the Buran spaceplane.
Hermes French manned spaceplane. Cancelled 1992. The Hermes spaceplane would have provided independent European manned ...
Atlas The Atlas rocket, originally developed as America's first ICBM, was the basis for most early American space exploration ...
Delta American orbital launch vehicle. The Delta launch vehicle was America's longest-lived, most reliable, and lowest-cost ...
Polyus Russian military anti-satellite system. The Polyus military test bed was put together on a crash basis as an answer ...
Vostok World's first manned spacecraft, it was developed into the later Voskhod, and numerous versions of recoverable ...
Ithacus American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. An adaptation of Phillip Bono's enormous ROMBUS plug-nozzle semi-single-stage-orbit ...
Otrag Orbital Transport-und-Raketen Aktiengesellschaft, Germany. Manufacturer of rocket engines and rockets. $200 million ...
RD-180 Glushko LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. Atlas III, Atlas V stage 1. In production. First flight 2000. Two-thrust-chamber ...
Apollo 12 Second manned lunar landing. Precision landing near Surveyor 3 that landed in 1967. Lightning struck the booster ...
A9/A10 German intercontinental boost-glide missile. The A9/A10 was the world's first practical design for a transatlantic ...
Space Shuttle American winged orbital launch vehicle. The version of the space shuttle that went into production. Redesign of ...
FSW Chinese military surveillance satellite. Reconnaissance, Earth observation satellite built by CAST, China. Launched ...
American Rocketplanes American manned rocketplane family.
LCLV American low cost orbital launch vehicle. As a result of TRW's review of the Truax/Aerojet Sea Dragon, TRW became ...
Manned spacecraft
MOL American manned space station. Cancelled 1969. MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) was the US Air Force's manned ...
Soyuz The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has been the longest-lived, most adaptable, and most successful manned spacecraft ...
Gnom Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. Gnom was a unique design which represented the most advanced work ...
Navaho The Navaho intercontinental cruise missile project was begun just after World War II, at a time when the US Army ...
MAKS Russian air-launched winged orbital launch vehicle. The MAKS spaceplane was the ultimate development of the air-launched ...
Lenticular Vehicles For a brief period in 1959-1964, NASA and the US Air Force actively considered launching manned flying saucers ...
SAINT American military anti-satellite system. Cancelled 1963.
Raketoplan Russian manned spaceplane family. Succeeding the VKA project, this was developed by Chelomei from 1959, including ...
Gun-launched Artillery dominated military ballistics from the earliest use of gunpowder. In 1865 Jules Verne could only realistically ...
Kosmoplan Russian Mars orbiter. Cancelled 1965. Beginning in the late 1950's, Chelomei began studying use of his encapsulated ...
Chertok's Memoirs Summary of a principal source in Soviet space history
Yangel Soviet Chief Designer 1954-1971 of OKB-586. Preeminent designer of ballistic missiles and light satellites. His ...
Storms American Chief Designer who led development of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn S-II at North American. Earlier ...
Mishin Soviet Chief Designer, superseding Korolev, 1966-1974. Led the bureau in the flight test stages of the L1 and ...
Leonov Russian pilot cosmonaut 1960-1982. Cancelled missions included command of first Soviet circumlunar flight in 1969 ...
Tereshkova Russian cosmonaut 1962-1997. First woman in space, aboard Vostok 6. But the flight was propaganda and future spaceflight ...
Kamanin Diaries Summary of a principal source in Soviet space history
Korolev Soviet Chief Designer, responsible for creating the first long range ballistic missiles, the first space launchers, ...
Tsien (1911-2009) Father of Chinese spaceflight. Leading rocket theoretician, expelled from USA as Red in 1955. Created ...
Glushko Soviet Chief Designer, responsible for all large liquid propellant engines for missiles and LVs. Led Glushko bureau, ...
Chelomei Soviet Chief Designer 1955-1984 of OKB-52. Leading designer of cruise missiles and ICBMs. Fought for lead role ...
Saenger German-Austrian rocket pioneer; designer of Silverbird space bomber. Worked at Trauen for Luftwaffe 1936-1944 ...
Russian Rocketplanes The story of rocketplanes and spaceplanes in the Soviet Union was one of constant setbacks due to internal politics, ...
Russia: Key Meetings in Soviet Spaceflight The key meetings, the main decisions that led to the Soviet loss of the moon race and shuttle race.
Russia: Soviet Space History at a Glance
Russia The true history of Soviet spaceflight is predominantly the story of Soviet military space. Manned or scientific ...
Russian SAMs and ABMs Perhaps no missiles ever produced had as much historical influence as the surface-to-air missiles of the Soviet ...
China The history of rocket and space development in China.
Germany German enthusiasts laid the technical groundwork for the exploration of space in the 1920's and early 1930's. ...
Russia - Early Ballistic Missiles The true configuration of the world's first ICBM, the R-7, was revealed only in 1967, ten years after its first ...
Russia: What did the CIA know and when did they know it? Fifty years of declassified American National Intelligence Estimates, compared to what we now know was really ...
Russian Strategic Cruise Missiles As in America, in the 1946 assessments of German military technology, the technical problems of the intercontinental ...
Russian Designations Designations of Russian ballistic missiles, launch vehicles, and spacecraft.
Mars Expeditions Since Wernher von Braun first sketched out his Marsprojekt in 1946, a succession of designs and mission ...
Mars Flyby
Mars lander
Mars orbiter
Mars rover
Mars Rovers Nearly every conceptual mission to Mars has included pressurized rovers to allow the astronauts to get around ...
American Mars Expeditions
Russian Mars Expeditions Aelita was the Queen of Mars in the famous socialist parable filmed by Jakov Protazanov in 1924. It was altogether ...
Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1952 American manned Mars expedition. Study 1952. Wernher von Braun made the first engineering analysis of a manned ...
Mars Soviet Mars probes were intended to photograph Mars on flyby trajectories, followed by Mars orbit, landing, and ...
Lunar Bases The Lunar Base never seemed to be a high priority to space visionaries, who were mainly interested in getting to Mars...
Lunar Flyby
Lunar Crashers
Lunar Orbiter American lunar orbiter. Photography of the moon's surface from selenocentric orbit. The Lunar Orbiter series took ...
Lunar Orbiters Manned lunar orbiters and orbiting stations were rarely designed for this purpose alone, but usually used in a ...
Lunar Landers Lunar lander design started with the British Interplanetary Society's concept of 1939, followed by Von Braun's ...
Lunar Flyers Lunar flyers would use rocket power to get crew or cargo quickly from one point on the lunar surface to another. ...
Lunar Habitats Lunar habitats were usually for early lunar exploration or as modules for fixed-location base buildup. Mobile ...
Lunar L1 The Russian program to fly Soviet cosmonauts around the moon in the late 1960's.
Russia: Soviet Manned Lunar Projects The failed Soviet lunar program, and the follow-on lunar base projects that came to nothing.
Lunar L3 The Soviet program to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth.
Apollo: Soviets Recovered an Apollo Capsule! The truth only emerged 32 years later - the Soviets recovered an Apollo space capsule in 1970… the original article.
Apollo The successful US project to land a man on the moon.
Apollo 7 First manned test of the Apollo spacecraft. Although the systems worked well, the crew became grumpy with head ...
Apollo 19 Apollo 19 was originally planned to land in the Hyginus Rille region, which would allow study of lunar linear ...
Apollo 20 Apollo 20 was originally planned in July 1969 to land in Crater Copernicus, a spectacular large crater impact ...
L1: The Podsadka Problem What was the secret configuration of the L1 spacecraft?
Project Horizon The project summary of the US Army's 1959 plan to place a military base on the moon by 1965!
L3 Russian manned lunar expedition. Development begun in 1964. All hardware was test flown, but program cancelled ...
Manned Circumlunar Boosting a manned spacecraft on a loop around the moon, without entering lunar orbit, allows a trip to be made ...
Lunar Rovers Lunar rovers were studied in a dizzying variety of sizes and shapes by NASA in the 1960's - including crawlers, ...
Propellants Propellants, fuels, and oxidizers - their characteristics and the vehicles that use them
Lox/LCH4 Lox/LCH4 propellant. Liquid methane, or liquid natural gas, was originally proposed in the 1960's as an an alternate ...
Lox/Alcohol Lox/Alcohol propellant. This propellant combination was used for the German V-2 rocket, and the first derivative ...
Solid Solid propellants have the fuel and oxidizer embedded in a rubbery matrix. They were developed to a high degree ...
N2O4/Aerozine-50 N2O4/Aerozine-50 propellant. Nitrogen tetroxide became the storable liquid propellant of choice from the late ...
N2O4/Hydrazine N2O4/Hydrazine propellant. Hydrazine (N2H4) found early use as a fuel, but it was quickly replaced by UDMH, and ...
Nitric acid/Kerosene Nitric acid/Kerosene propellant. This propellant combination, theoreticaly a very low-cost solution, proved to ...
Learn about:
Space Station 1970 NASA's baseline Space Station of 1970, which was to be operational at early as 1977, was a large earth orbiting ...
Vulcain 2 SEP, Ottobrunn LOx/LH2 rocket engine. In development. New generator cycle rocket engine for an Ariane 5 core stage ...
Pegasus VTOVL American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. Bono design for semi-single-stage-to-orbit ballistic VTOVL launch ...
Transit Spin-stabilized Transit satellites were developed by the US Navy beginning in 1958 for the first operational navigation ...
Massimino American engineer mission specialist astronaut 1996-2012.
Soyuz 7K-OK Russian manned spacecraft. Development of a three-manned orbital version of the Soyuz, the 7K-OK was approved ...
OTV American space tug. Studied 1985-1989. The Orbital Transfer Vehicle was reusable space tug, powered by LOx/LH2 ...
Titan IIIC American orbital launch vehicle. Titan 3A with five segment solid motors. Man-rated design originally developed ...
Higginbotham American engineer mission specialist astronaut 1996-2007. Engineer.
Soyuz-U Russian standardized man-rated orbital launch vehicle derived from the original R-7 ICBM of 1957. It has been ...
Burlak Russian air-launched winged orbital launch vehicle. Burlak air-launched satellite launcher was proposed in 1992 ...
RD-171 Glushko LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. Zenit stage 1. In production. RD-171 used two-plane gimballing versus one-plane ...
RSA-3 The RSA-3 satellite launcher began development as an IRBM in the 1980's because of the perceived Soviet threat ...
NAA Manned Bombardment and Control Vehicle American manned combat spacecraft. Study 1963. In the early 1960's, one configuration studied by North American ...
Penguin Russian anti-zero-G suit, tested 1975. Prophylactic Body-Loading Suit, in use from 1978-; looked like the standard ...
Mars Direct American manned Mars expedition. Study 1991. In 1991 Martin Marietta and NASA Ames (Zubrin, Baker, and Gwynne) ...
STS External Tank Station American manned space station. Study 1980. NASA studied several concepts in the 1980's using the 'wet workshop' ...
Soyuz 11 First space station mission. Record flight duration. Main telescope inoperative. Fire in space station put out. ...
NK-33 Kuznetsov LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. N-1F stage 1 (block A), Kistler stage 1, Taurus II stage 1. Modified version ...
EBH LV German orbital launch vehicle. The EBH (Engel - Bödewaldt - Hanischlaunch) vehicle was a 1949 manned design which ...
Burya La-350 A government decree on 20 May 1954 authorized the Lavochkin aircraft design bureau to proceed with full-scale ...
A9/A10/A11 German winged orbital launch vehicle. The A11 was planned at Peenemuende to use the A9/A10 transoceanic missile ...
Shuttle C American orbital launch vehicle. NASA Marshall design for a cargo version of the shuttle system. The shuttle orbiter ...
Gemini Lunar Lander American manned lunar lander. Study 1961. A direct lunar lander design of 1961, capable of being launched to the ...
Kistler K-1 American low-cost orbital launch vehicle. The Kistler K-1 was a reusable two-stage launch vehicle developed by ...
Jupiter C American orbital launch vehicle. Re-entry vehicle test booster and satellite launcher derived from Redstone missile. ...
R-2 Russian intermediate range ballistic missile. The Soviet R-2 ballistic missile was developed in 1947-1953, nearly ...
Voskhod 1 First three-crew spaceflight. Altitude record (336 km). First crew to fly without spacesuits. First non-pilot ...
Gemini LOR American manned lunar lander. Study 1961. Original Mercury Mark II proposal foresaw a Gemini capsule and a single-crew ...
Peenemuende Heersversuchsstelle Peenemunde. First launch site in the world, used for development of the V-1, A-4/V-2, Wasserfall, ...
Minuteman American intercontinental ballistic missile. Mainstay of the US deterrent. 1,000 Minuteman silos were built in ...
R-12 Ukrainian intermediate range ballistic missile. The R-12 was the first operationally effective intermediate range ...
Molniya First Soviet communications satellite network, using satellites in an inclined 12-hour orbit ensuring reception ...
IS-A Russian military anti-satellite system. First operational ASAT. Tested in 1967-1971 and deployed through the late ...
R-16 Ukrainian intercontinental ballistic missile. The Soviet Union's first practical ICBM, a two stage vehicle using ...
RSA-4 South African all-solid orbital launch vehicle. The RSA-4 ICBM / satellite launcher was a planned follow-on to ...
R-5 Yangel intermediate range ballistic missile. The R-5 was the first Soviet missile to be armed with a nuclear warhead, ...
R-1 Russian short range ballistic missile. Stalin did not decide to proceed with Soviet production of this copy of ...
Spiral OS Russian manned spaceplane, developed 1965-1980s, including subscale flight article tests. Evolved into the MAKS ...
CXV American manned spacecraft. Study 2012. Crew Transfer Vehicle proposed by `t/Space and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites ...
Zenit-2 satellite Russian military surveillance satellite. The Zenit-2 was a derivative of the manned Vostok, and the Soviet Union's ...
Bomi Bell manned skip-glide space bomber project of the early 1950's. Predecessor to Dynasoar.
UR-100 Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. The UR-100 lightweight ICBM was the Soviet answer to the US Minuteman ...
CIA NIE March 1967 What did the US know about Soviet lunar plans? This annotated version of the CIA's National Intelligence Estimate ...
Kapustin Yar Russia's first missile test range and used for satellite launches of smaller Kosmos vehicles. V-2's launched from ...
R-11 First Russian ballistic missile using storable propellants, developed from the German Wasserfall SAM by Korolev's ...
R-17 Russian short-range ballistic missile. The final refinement of the R-11 design, the R-17, was exported widely ...
Woomera Woomera Instrumented Range. After World War II British government recognized the need for a large range to test ...
Spacelab The European-built Spacelab pressurized module remained attached to space shuttle and permitted conduct of a range ...
R-36 Ukrainian intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-36 ICBM was the largest ever built and the bogeyman of the ...
Manned Space Firsts Who did what when ? -- a list of manned space firsts...
S-75 Russian surface-to-air missile. Known in the west as the SA-2 Guideline, this weapon was responsible for the downing ...
Wallops Island Wallops Flight Facility. Small NASA launch site for sounding rocket launches and occasional Scout launches to ...
US-A Russian military naval surveillance radar satellite. The US-A (later known as RLS) was a nuclear powered RORSAT ...
MORL American manned space station. Study 1962. In June 1964 Boeing and Douglas received Phase I contracts for Manned ...
Jiuquan China's first launch center, also known as Shuang Cheng Tzu. Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, situated at 100 ...
US Rocketplanes Category of spacecraft.
Sriharikota India's primary space launch center, located on the east coast of the peninsula with a firing sector over the ...
The Rocketeer Who Never Was
NASA histories say that the first American rocket-powered aircraft flight was made by William Swan at Atlantic City on January 4, 1931. But the launch was made in June and Swan was not his real name. He made the first air-launched rocket aircraft flight in 1932. In 1933 he bailed from an aircraft over Boca Chica, Texas, now the site of the SpaceX Starship launch facility, disappeared into the clouds, and was never seen again. Where had he come from? Where did he go? It was only in the 21st Century that the life story of Swan was revealed.
Oberg Corner
The latest from Jim Oberg, the dean of American space historians.
The Mishin Diaries
Podsadka - Failed Plan to Win the Moon Race Podsadka was a secret plan to use a two-launch scheme to shoot the first Soviet crew around the moon. The reason for the puzzling Soyuz manned launches in 1966-1969 are revealed to be tests of this scheme. The effort was bandoned after Apollo 8 orbited the moon and the L1 program was cancelled.
N1-L3: Two Launches to Get One Man on the Moon The single-launch approach to the moon landing sold to the Soviet leadership was unachievable due to payload shortfalls and safety considerations. By the time of America's first landing on the moon, it had degenerated into a two-launch scheme. The first launch would deliver a Ye-8-2 robot rover to place a homing beacon at a safe location for the manned landing; and a reserve unmanned LK-R lander to provide a way home in case the primary LK lander failed on the lunar surface. The second launch would result in the single-crew LK lander setting down near the beacon and reserve lander...
MKBS - Secret Origin of Mir and Soyuz T The MKBS was an N1-launched, nuclear-powered orbital battle station that would assure Soviet dominance of space through use of beam weapons. It was developed in 1969-1974, only to be ended when the N1 booster necessary to put it in orbit was cancelled. However the spacecraft and systems developed for it became the basis for the Soviet manned space program of the 1970's and 1980's.
Man-in-Space Soonest - The canceled USAF project to put a man in orbit by 1960 - a year ahead of the Russians!
Bono In the 1960's Philip Bono proposed a series of innovative designs that would enable airline-like access to space. ...
Russian Lunar Program
Soviet Lunar Projects The Russians began three years later in competing with Apollo, and wasted time in competing efforts and internal wrangling.
Soyuz 7K-L1 Russian manned lunar flyby spacecraft which would have beat Americans around the moon if not for intractable technical failures...
Russia: Why did the Soviet Union lose the Moon Race? The reasons the Americans were first on the moon, as given by the major Soviet participants.
The Real Moon Landing Hoax How the Soviet Union fooled the world into believing it wasn't in the moon race.
Soyuz 7K-LOK The two-crew LOK lunar orbiting spacecraft was to be placed in lunar orbit before the Americans. One cosmonaut would transfer to the
LK lunar lander and plant the Soviet flag on the moon.
Luna Ye-8-5 When it was clear the LK would not be ready in time, this robotic lunar lander was built in a crash program to return a sample of lunar soil to earth before Apollo 11 mission.
N1 The N1 launch vehicle, developed by Russia in the 1960's, was to be the Soviet Union's counterpart to the Saturn V and send Soviet cosmonauts to a lunar landing.
Russian Alternatives
LK-1 Chelomei's manned circumlunar spacecraft. Underway when cancelled in favor of Korolev's L1....
LK-700 Chelomei's direct-landing alternative to Korolev's L3 manned lunar landing design. ...
UR-700 The UR-700 was the member of Vladimir Chelomei's Universal Rocket family designed to take two Soviet cosmonauts on a direct flight to the moon.
R-56 Ukrainian heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. The R-56 was Yangel's ultimate superbooster design for the lunar mission in competition with the N1 and UR-700.
American Lunar Program
Apollo Lunar Landing American project that resulted in an American being the first (and only) human to walk on the moon. Begun in 1962; first landing on the moon 1969; sixth and final lunar landing in 1972. Hardware was available for three further missions, but program was cancelled due to risk, the Soviets getting out of the race, and loss of public support and interest.
Apollo 7 First manned test of the Apollo spacecraft. Although the systems worked well, the crew became grumpy with head colds and talked back to the ground. As a result, NASA management determined that none of them would fly again.
Apollo 503 Cancelled Apollo E mission - test of the Apollo lunar module in high earth orbit. Lunar module was not ready. Instead mission flown only with CSM into lunar orbit as Apollo 8.
Apollo 8 First manned flight to lunar orbit. Speed (10,807 m/s) and altitude (378,504 km) records. Mission resulted from audacious decision to send crew around moon to beat Soviets on only second manned Apollo CSM mission and third Saturn V launch.
Apollo 9 First manned test of the Lunar Module. First test of the Apollo space suits. First manned flight of a spacecraft incapable of returning to earth. If rendezvous of the Lunar Module with the Apollo CSM had failed, crew would have been stranded in orbit.
Apollo 10 Final dress rehearsal in lunar orbit for landing on moon. LM separated and descended to 10 km from surface of moon but did not land. Speed record (11,107 m/s).
Apollo 11 First manned lunar landing. The end of the moon race and public support for large space programs. The many changes made after the Apollo 204 fire paid off; all went according to plan, virtually no problems.
Saturn V American orbital launch vehicle. America's booster for the Apollo manned lunar landing.
Apollo CSM The Apollo Command Service Module was the spacecraft developed by NASA in the 1960's as a standard spacecraft but ended up being built only for the lunar landing mission.
Apollo LM American manned lunar lander.
American Alternatives
Lunar Gemini The Gusmobile might have gotten on the moon faster, quicker, cheaper (but not better...)
Apollo D-2 American manned lunar orbiter. Study 1962. The General Electric design for Apollo put all systems and space not ...
Nova Nova was NASA"s ultimate launch vehicle, studied intently from 1959 to 1962, conceived to allow a direct manned lunar landing...
Other Stuff
Sea Dragon American sea-launched heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle. Sea Dragon was an immense, sea-launched, two-stage launch ...
Sputnik 2 Russian biology satellite.
Manned V-2 While the V-2 rocket could not achieve orbit, it was capable of putting a man into space on a suborbital trajectory. ...
Apollo 18 Apollo 18 was originally planned in July 1969 to land in the moon's Schroter's Valley, a river-like channel-way. ...
A Brief History of the HARP Project Richard K Graf's account of the Canadian 1960's project to launch satellites from a 16 inch gun...
Lox/LH2 Lox/LH2 propellant.to be used on production space launch vehicles. Liquid oxygen was the earliest, cheapest, safest, ...
V-2 The V-2 ballistic missile (known to its designers as the A4) was the world's first operational liquid fuel rocket. ...
Space Suits To explore and work in space, human beings must take their environment with them because there is no atmospheric ...
Lox/Kerosene Lox/Kerosene propellant. Liquid oxygen was the earliest, cheapest, safest, and eventually the preferred oxidizer ...
Saturn I American orbital launch vehicle. Von Braun launch vehicle known as 'Cluster's Last Stand' - 8 Redstone tanks around ...
Apollo 11 First manned lunar landing. The end of the moon race and public support for large space programs. The many changes ...
By Gemini to Mars! In the 1960's many considered use of the cramped two-man Gemini reentry vehicle for journeys to the moon problematic. ...
N2O4/UDMH N2O4/UDMH propellant. Nitrogen tetroxide became the storable liquid propellant of choice from the late 1950's. ...
Adam American manned spacecraft. In early 1958 Wernher von Braun proposed launching an American aboard an Army Redstone ...
Buran Russian manned spaceplane which represented a huge leap in Soviet space technology and project management. Buran ...
Gemini American manned spacecraft. Gemini was conceived as an 'upgraded Mercury' to test essential orbital maneuvering, ...
N2O4/MMH N2O4/MMH propellant. Monomethylhydrazine (MMH) is a storable liquid fuel that found favor in the United States ...
Pye Wacket Pye Wacket was the code name for a flying saucer-shaped air-to-air missile being developed by the US Air Force ...
Dynasoar American manned spaceplane. Cancelled 1963. The X-20A Dynasoar (Dynamic Soarer) was a single-pilot manned reusable ...
Titan II American intercontinental ballistic missile. ICBM, developed also as the launch vehicle for the manned Gemini ...
Where Have All the Astronauts Gone? The public pays little attention to manned space flight and seems to believe that little has changed. They see ...
Almaz Vladimir Chelomei's Almaz was the only manned military spacecraft ever actually flown. The project continued through ...
Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1969 American manned Mars expedition. Study 1969. Von Braun's final vision for a manned expedition to Mars was a robust ...
R-7 Russian intercontinental ballistic missile and launch vehicle series. The world's first ICBM and first orbital ...
Apollo 17 Final Apollo lunar landing mission. First geologist to walk on the moon.
Proton The Proton launch vehicle has been the medium-lift workhorse of the Soviet and Russian space programs for over ...
H2O2/Kerosene H2O2/Kerosene propellant. Hydrogen peroxide was used as an oxidizer with kerosene in the 1950's in British rockets. ...
Skylab American manned space station. First US space station. The project began life as the Orbital Workshop- outfitting ...
Apollo 13 Fuel cell tank exploded en route to the moon, resulting in loss of all power and oxygen. Only through use of the ...
Energia Version of the Energia using the core vehicle without the Buran spaceplane.
Hermes French manned spaceplane. Cancelled 1992. The Hermes spaceplane would have provided independent European manned ...
Atlas The Atlas rocket, originally developed as America's first ICBM, was the basis for most early American space exploration ...
Delta American orbital launch vehicle. The Delta launch vehicle was America's longest-lived, most reliable, and lowest-cost ...
Polyus Russian military anti-satellite system. The Polyus military test bed was put together on a crash basis as an answer ...
Vostok World's first manned spacecraft, it was developed into the later Voskhod, and numerous versions of recoverable ...
Ithacus American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. An adaptation of Phillip Bono's enormous ROMBUS plug-nozzle semi-single-stage-orbit ...
Otrag Orbital Transport-und-Raketen Aktiengesellschaft, Germany. Manufacturer of rocket engines and rockets. $200 million ...
RD-180 Glushko LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. Atlas III, Atlas V stage 1. In production. First flight 2000. Two-thrust-chamber ...
Apollo 12 Second manned lunar landing. Precision landing near Surveyor 3 that landed in 1967. Lightning struck the booster ...
A9/A10 German intercontinental boost-glide missile. The A9/A10 was the world's first practical design for a transatlantic ...
Space Shuttle American winged orbital launch vehicle. The version of the space shuttle that went into production. Redesign of ...
FSW Chinese military surveillance satellite. Reconnaissance, Earth observation satellite built by CAST, China. Launched ...
American Rocketplanes American manned rocketplane family.
LCLV American low cost orbital launch vehicle. As a result of TRW's review of the Truax/Aerojet Sea Dragon, TRW became ...
Manned spacecraft
MOL American manned space station. Cancelled 1969. MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) was the US Air Force's manned ...
Soyuz The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has been the longest-lived, most adaptable, and most successful manned spacecraft ...
Gnom Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. Gnom was a unique design which represented the most advanced work ...
Navaho The Navaho intercontinental cruise missile project was begun just after World War II, at a time when the US Army ...
MAKS Russian air-launched winged orbital launch vehicle. The MAKS spaceplane was the ultimate development of the air-launched ...
Lenticular Vehicles For a brief period in 1959-1964, NASA and the US Air Force actively considered launching manned flying saucers ...
SAINT American military anti-satellite system. Cancelled 1963.
Raketoplan Russian manned spaceplane family. Succeeding the VKA project, this was developed by Chelomei from 1959, including ...
Gun-launched Artillery dominated military ballistics from the earliest use of gunpowder. In 1865 Jules Verne could only realistically ...
Kosmoplan Russian Mars orbiter. Cancelled 1965. Beginning in the late 1950's, Chelomei began studying use of his encapsulated ...
Chertok's Memoirs Summary of a principal source in Soviet space history
Yangel Soviet Chief Designer 1954-1971 of OKB-586. Preeminent designer of ballistic missiles and light satellites. His ...
Storms American Chief Designer who led development of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn S-II at North American. Earlier ...
Mishin Soviet Chief Designer, superseding Korolev, 1966-1974. Led the bureau in the flight test stages of the L1 and ...
Leonov Russian pilot cosmonaut 1960-1982. Cancelled missions included command of first Soviet circumlunar flight in 1969 ...
Tereshkova Russian cosmonaut 1962-1997. First woman in space, aboard Vostok 6. But the flight was propaganda and future spaceflight ...
Kamanin Diaries Summary of a principal source in Soviet space history
Korolev Soviet Chief Designer, responsible for creating the first long range ballistic missiles, the first space launchers, ...
Tsien (1911-2009) Father of Chinese spaceflight. Leading rocket theoretician, expelled from USA as Red in 1955. Created ...
Glushko Soviet Chief Designer, responsible for all large liquid propellant engines for missiles and LVs. Led Glushko bureau, ...
Chelomei Soviet Chief Designer 1955-1984 of OKB-52. Leading designer of cruise missiles and ICBMs. Fought for lead role ...
Saenger German-Austrian rocket pioneer; designer of Silverbird space bomber. Worked at Trauen for Luftwaffe 1936-1944 ...
Russian Rocketplanes The story of rocketplanes and spaceplanes in the Soviet Union was one of constant setbacks due to internal politics, ...
Russia: Key Meetings in Soviet Spaceflight The key meetings, the main decisions that led to the Soviet loss of the moon race and shuttle race.
Russia: Soviet Space History at a Glance
Russia The true history of Soviet spaceflight is predominantly the story of Soviet military space. Manned or scientific ...
Russian SAMs and ABMs Perhaps no missiles ever produced had as much historical influence as the surface-to-air missiles of the Soviet ...
China The history of rocket and space development in China.
Germany German enthusiasts laid the technical groundwork for the exploration of space in the 1920's and early 1930's. ...
Russia - Early Ballistic Missiles The true configuration of the world's first ICBM, the R-7, was revealed only in 1967, ten years after its first ...
Russia: What did the CIA know and when did they know it? Fifty years of declassified American National Intelligence Estimates, compared to what we now know was really ...
Russian Strategic Cruise Missiles As in America, in the 1946 assessments of German military technology, the technical problems of the intercontinental ...
Russian Designations Designations of Russian ballistic missiles, launch vehicles, and spacecraft.
Mars Expeditions Since Wernher von Braun first sketched out his Marsprojekt in 1946, a succession of designs and mission ...
Mars Flyby
Mars lander
Mars orbiter
Mars rover
Mars Rovers Nearly every conceptual mission to Mars has included pressurized rovers to allow the astronauts to get around ...
American Mars Expeditions
Russian Mars Expeditions Aelita was the Queen of Mars in the famous socialist parable filmed by Jakov Protazanov in 1924. It was altogether ...
Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1952 American manned Mars expedition. Study 1952. Wernher von Braun made the first engineering analysis of a manned ...
Mars Soviet Mars probes were intended to photograph Mars on flyby trajectories, followed by Mars orbit, landing, and ...
Lunar Bases The Lunar Base never seemed to be a high priority to space visionaries, who were mainly interested in getting to Mars...
Lunar Flyby
Lunar Crashers
Lunar Orbiter American lunar orbiter. Photography of the moon's surface from selenocentric orbit. The Lunar Orbiter series took ...
Lunar Orbiters Manned lunar orbiters and orbiting stations were rarely designed for this purpose alone, but usually used in a ...
Lunar Landers Lunar lander design started with the British Interplanetary Society's concept of 1939, followed by Von Braun's ...
Lunar Flyers Lunar flyers would use rocket power to get crew or cargo quickly from one point on the lunar surface to another. ...
Lunar Habitats Lunar habitats were usually for early lunar exploration or as modules for fixed-location base buildup. Mobile ...
Lunar L1 The Russian program to fly Soviet cosmonauts around the moon in the late 1960's.
Russia: Soviet Manned Lunar Projects The failed Soviet lunar program, and the follow-on lunar base projects that came to nothing.
Lunar L3 The Soviet program to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth.
Apollo: Soviets Recovered an Apollo Capsule! The truth only emerged 32 years later - the Soviets recovered an Apollo space capsule in 1970… the original article.
Apollo The successful US project to land a man on the moon.
Apollo 7 First manned test of the Apollo spacecraft. Although the systems worked well, the crew became grumpy with head ...
Apollo 19 Apollo 19 was originally planned to land in the Hyginus Rille region, which would allow study of lunar linear ...
Apollo 20 Apollo 20 was originally planned in July 1969 to land in Crater Copernicus, a spectacular large crater impact ...
L1: The Podsadka Problem What was the secret configuration of the L1 spacecraft?
Project Horizon The project summary of the US Army's 1959 plan to place a military base on the moon by 1965!
L3 Russian manned lunar expedition. Development begun in 1964. All hardware was test flown, but program cancelled ...
Manned Circumlunar Boosting a manned spacecraft on a loop around the moon, without entering lunar orbit, allows a trip to be made ...
Lunar Rovers Lunar rovers were studied in a dizzying variety of sizes and shapes by NASA in the 1960's - including crawlers, ...
Propellants Propellants, fuels, and oxidizers - their characteristics and the vehicles that use them
Lox/LCH4 Lox/LCH4 propellant. Liquid methane, or liquid natural gas, was originally proposed in the 1960's as an an alternate ...
Lox/Alcohol Lox/Alcohol propellant. This propellant combination was used for the German V-2 rocket, and the first derivative ...
Solid Solid propellants have the fuel and oxidizer embedded in a rubbery matrix. They were developed to a high degree ...
N2O4/Aerozine-50 N2O4/Aerozine-50 propellant. Nitrogen tetroxide became the storable liquid propellant of choice from the late ...
N2O4/Hydrazine N2O4/Hydrazine propellant. Hydrazine (N2H4) found early use as a fuel, but it was quickly replaced by UDMH, and ...
Nitric acid/Kerosene Nitric acid/Kerosene propellant. This propellant combination, theoreticaly a very low-cost solution, proved to ...
Learn about:
Space Station 1970 NASA's baseline Space Station of 1970, which was to be operational at early as 1977, was a large earth orbiting ...
Vulcain 2 SEP, Ottobrunn LOx/LH2 rocket engine. In development. New generator cycle rocket engine for an Ariane 5 core stage ...
Pegasus VTOVL American SSTO VTOVL orbital launch vehicle. Bono design for semi-single-stage-to-orbit ballistic VTOVL launch ...
Transit Spin-stabilized Transit satellites were developed by the US Navy beginning in 1958 for the first operational navigation ...
Massimino American engineer mission specialist astronaut 1996-2012.
Soyuz 7K-OK Russian manned spacecraft. Development of a three-manned orbital version of the Soyuz, the 7K-OK was approved ...
OTV American space tug. Studied 1985-1989. The Orbital Transfer Vehicle was reusable space tug, powered by LOx/LH2 ...
Titan IIIC American orbital launch vehicle. Titan 3A with five segment solid motors. Man-rated design originally developed ...
Higginbotham American engineer mission specialist astronaut 1996-2007. Engineer.
Soyuz-U Russian standardized man-rated orbital launch vehicle derived from the original R-7 ICBM of 1957. It has been ...
Burlak Russian air-launched winged orbital launch vehicle. Burlak air-launched satellite launcher was proposed in 1992 ...
RD-171 Glushko LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. Zenit stage 1. In production. RD-171 used two-plane gimballing versus one-plane ...
RSA-3 The RSA-3 satellite launcher began development as an IRBM in the 1980's because of the perceived Soviet threat ...
NAA Manned Bombardment and Control Vehicle American manned combat spacecraft. Study 1963. In the early 1960's, one configuration studied by North American ...
Penguin Russian anti-zero-G suit, tested 1975. Prophylactic Body-Loading Suit, in use from 1978-; looked like the standard ...
Mars Direct American manned Mars expedition. Study 1991. In 1991 Martin Marietta and NASA Ames (Zubrin, Baker, and Gwynne) ...
STS External Tank Station American manned space station. Study 1980. NASA studied several concepts in the 1980's using the 'wet workshop' ...
Soyuz 11 First space station mission. Record flight duration. Main telescope inoperative. Fire in space station put out. ...
NK-33 Kuznetsov LOx/Kerosene rocket engine. N-1F stage 1 (block A), Kistler stage 1, Taurus II stage 1. Modified version ...
EBH LV German orbital launch vehicle. The EBH (Engel - Bödewaldt - Hanischlaunch) vehicle was a 1949 manned design which ...
Burya La-350 A government decree on 20 May 1954 authorized the Lavochkin aircraft design bureau to proceed with full-scale ...
A9/A10/A11 German winged orbital launch vehicle. The A11 was planned at Peenemuende to use the A9/A10 transoceanic missile ...
Shuttle C American orbital launch vehicle. NASA Marshall design for a cargo version of the shuttle system. The shuttle orbiter ...
Gemini Lunar Lander American manned lunar lander. Study 1961. A direct lunar lander design of 1961, capable of being launched to the ...
Kistler K-1 American low-cost orbital launch vehicle. The Kistler K-1 was a reusable two-stage launch vehicle developed by ...
Jupiter C American orbital launch vehicle. Re-entry vehicle test booster and satellite launcher derived from Redstone missile. ...
R-2 Russian intermediate range ballistic missile. The Soviet R-2 ballistic missile was developed in 1947-1953, nearly ...
Voskhod 1 First three-crew spaceflight. Altitude record (336 km). First crew to fly without spacesuits. First non-pilot ...
Gemini LOR American manned lunar lander. Study 1961. Original Mercury Mark II proposal foresaw a Gemini capsule and a single-crew ...
Peenemuende Heersversuchsstelle Peenemunde. First launch site in the world, used for development of the V-1, A-4/V-2, Wasserfall, ...
Minuteman American intercontinental ballistic missile. Mainstay of the US deterrent. 1,000 Minuteman silos were built in ...
R-12 Ukrainian intermediate range ballistic missile. The R-12 was the first operationally effective intermediate range ...
Molniya First Soviet communications satellite network, using satellites in an inclined 12-hour orbit ensuring reception ...
IS-A Russian military anti-satellite system. First operational ASAT. Tested in 1967-1971 and deployed through the late ...
R-16 Ukrainian intercontinental ballistic missile. The Soviet Union's first practical ICBM, a two stage vehicle using ...
RSA-4 South African all-solid orbital launch vehicle. The RSA-4 ICBM / satellite launcher was a planned follow-on to ...
R-5 Yangel intermediate range ballistic missile. The R-5 was the first Soviet missile to be armed with a nuclear warhead, ...
R-1 Russian short range ballistic missile. Stalin did not decide to proceed with Soviet production of this copy of ...
Spiral OS Russian manned spaceplane, developed 1965-1980s, including subscale flight article tests. Evolved into the MAKS ...
CXV American manned spacecraft. Study 2012. Crew Transfer Vehicle proposed by `t/Space and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites ...
Zenit-2 satellite Russian military surveillance satellite. The Zenit-2 was a derivative of the manned Vostok, and the Soviet Union's ...
Bomi Bell manned skip-glide space bomber project of the early 1950's. Predecessor to Dynasoar.
UR-100 Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. The UR-100 lightweight ICBM was the Soviet answer to the US Minuteman ...
CIA NIE March 1967 What did the US know about Soviet lunar plans? This annotated version of the CIA's National Intelligence Estimate ...
Kapustin Yar Russia's first missile test range and used for satellite launches of smaller Kosmos vehicles. V-2's launched from ...
R-11 First Russian ballistic missile using storable propellants, developed from the German Wasserfall SAM by Korolev's ...
R-17 Russian short-range ballistic missile. The final refinement of the R-11 design, the R-17, was exported widely ...
Woomera Woomera Instrumented Range. After World War II British government recognized the need for a large range to test ...
Spacelab The European-built Spacelab pressurized module remained attached to space shuttle and permitted conduct of a range ...
R-36 Ukrainian intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-36 ICBM was the largest ever built and the bogeyman of the ...
Manned Space Firsts Who did what when ? -- a list of manned space firsts...
S-75 Russian surface-to-air missile. Known in the west as the SA-2 Guideline, this weapon was responsible for the downing ...
Wallops Island Wallops Flight Facility. Small NASA launch site for sounding rocket launches and occasional Scout launches to ...
US-A Russian military naval surveillance radar satellite. The US-A (later known as RLS) was a nuclear powered RORSAT ...
MORL American manned space station. Study 1962. In June 1964 Boeing and Douglas received Phase I contracts for Manned ...
Jiuquan China's first launch center, also known as Shuang Cheng Tzu. Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, situated at 100 ...
US Rocketplanes Category of spacecraft.
Sriharikota India's primary space launch center, located on the east coast of the peninsula with a firing sector over the ...
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