The history of the exploration of our closest natural satellite would not be complete without reference to the realistic but failed Soviet attempts to orbit and put man on the moon.

It was in 1964 that ̱Khrushchev Khrushchev, Nikita (1894-1971), Soviet Communist party leader, First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1953-64, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers in 1958-64.realized that the program announced by US President J. Kennedy to put man on the moon would result in a change in world space supremacy. The lunar expedition was discussed by the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers. The race was on, and all of the USSR's leading space designers - ̱Sergei Korolyov,Korolyov, Sergei (1906-1966), Chief Designer of Space Rocket Systems. He worked in the field of space technology since the 1930s. Participated in designing the JERG-X rocket and was the chief designer of military missiles and of the Vostok and Voskhod spacecraft. Full Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1958.̱Mikhail Yangel Yangel, Mikhail (1911-71), Soviet designer of space technology. He worked in close collaboration with Korolyov at his design office for many years. In 1954, he was appointed a chief designer and placed in charge of a design office of his own in Dnepropetrovsk. Yangel's design office was responsible for the launching of smaller Kosmos and Interkosmos satellites.and ̱Vladimir Chelomei Chelomei, Vladimir (1914-84). Chief designer of military missiles between 1944 and 1954. Chelomei's design office was responsible for the design of the Proton launch vehicle and the SS-9 Scarp missile, which was used as the basis for the Tsiklon booster (SL-14 version). The same design office designed Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 (the "military" Salyuts).- were involved.

By the end of 1964 Korolyov came up with a rough draft called N-1-L-3. His project was to build a powerful multi-stage rocket (like Saturn-5) and two-man spacecraft with a lunar module in which one of the cosmonauts would disengage from the spacecraft (which would orbit around the moon) and descend to the moon's surface. The cosmonaut would then set off back to the artificial moon satellite, the spacecraft in which his colleague was waiting. The two would then return to earth together. The project did not differ in any great way from the Apollo one except for the fact that one cosmonaut would be working on the moon instead of two. This was because Korolyov's ̱N-1N-1, Soviet lunar project, developed by Korolyov since 1964. The project envisaged the development of a heavy multistage space rocket and a two-man spaceship with a lunar module in which one cosmonaut, having separated it from the spaceship flying in lunar orbit, would descend to the Moon and land on it.lunar rocket had a payload between 75 and 92 tons, less than that of Saturn-5.

The plan was to test-fly N-1 for the first time in the autumn of 1967. A modification of the manned new-generation spacecraft which would orbit the moon (L-1) was being designed simultaneously. The first spacecraft of the kind - Kosmos-146 - was launched on March 10, 1967. The acceleration maneuver failed and the spacecraft blew up. Then the death of the cosmonaut ̱Vladimir Komarov Komarov, Vladimir (1927-1967), Soviet cosmonaut, military pilot. In October 1964, he was the commander of Voskhod, the world's first multiman spaceship, in which he performed, together with his crew that included Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov, a space flight lasting 24 hours. He was killed in the crash of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft on April 24, 1967.on ̱Soyuz-1 Soyuz-1, Soviet spacecraft, the last one designed by Korolyov. Its mission on April 23-24, 1967, with Vladimir Komarov acting as the pilot, was unsuccessful, the pilot was killed when the spacecraft crashed during an attempt to land it.delayed research into orbital docking.

The first testing flight of an unmanned lunar spacecraft, which had no thermal protection for the return to earth, took place on March 10, 1967. The purpose of the exercise was to test the ancillary D-block. The block was successfully engaged both times, but a malfunction in the attitude system during testing for the lunar spacecraft produced the most unforeseen failure.

The D-block was held responsible for the failure of the two tests, and not the spacecraft itself. Two other failures were attributed to booster rockets (the first due to the failure of the first stage, the second due to the failure of the second stage). Only the fifth launch of the so-called Zond-4 could be described as relatively successful. The launch did not involve orbiting the moon, but the spacecraft was supposed to have carried out all maneuvers essential for that orbit and to return to earth. All maneuvers were carried out, but the spacecraft was blasted when returning to earth, as it was about to land in an area where it could not be found.

Zond-4 was followed by two more unsuccessful tests of a lunar orbital spacecraft, both of which failed due to booster rocket malfunctioning.

The unmanned Zond-5 was the first Soviet spacecraft to orbit the moon, one month before Apollo-7 was launched. In November 1968, Zond-6 again orbited the moon, but the cabin unsealed on landing. At an altitude of 7 kilometers the parachutes suddenly opened and the spacecraft broke up. In December 1968 US astronauts orbited the moon for the first time, making the L-1 program senseless from a political point of view. At least that was how it seemed to ̱Brezhnev Brezhnev, Leonid (1906-1982), Soviet Communist leader, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1966-82. As a member of the CPSU Central Committee, he supervised the fulfillment of the Soviet space program during its early stage.and his entourage. However, the Soviet leaders still nurtured the hope of putting the first cosmonaut on the moon. On February 21, 1969, the N-1 rocket for the first time launched an L-1S unmanned spacecraft based on the L-1 manned version. The engines failed 70 seconds after takeoff due to a fire in the tail unit.

The race for the moon reached its culmination. The successful mission by Apollo-9 in April 1969 and the dress rehearsal for landing on the moon by the crew of Apollo-10 in May that year left the USSR with no chance of beating the Americans. A second attempt to launch the N-1 was made on July 3, 1969. One of the oxygen pumps exploded at the moment of launch causing the whole rocket to blow up, which destroyed the entire launch tower. Vain attempts were made to deliver moon rock to the earth before the Americans, but even Brezhnev's last hope, the Luna-15, launched a week before Neil Armstrong, Edwin Oldrin and Michael Collins went into space, ended in failure. The Americans landed on the moon on July 21, and the race lost all meaning. Further attempts by the USSR to create a lunar rocket also failed. Launches of the N-1 on July 27, 1971 and on November 23, 1972, were marred by first-stage engine failure.