LK-700

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LK-700
Phase : G / Status : ended in 1974
Type: Landing module
Country: USSR
Organization: FSA / Roscosmos
Mission dates
Starting place: Baikonur / Kazakhstan
Launcher: UR-700
Mission duration: 8 days
Landing place: 88% of the surface of the moon facing the earth
Orbit data
Apogee : 200 km
Perigee : 200 km
General spacecraft data
Takeoff mass: 154 t
Dimensions: 21.20 × 2.70 × 2.70 m
Specific spacecraft data
Stabilization : RCS systems (outside the atmosphere) / control fin (in the earth's atmosphere)
Drive system : N2O4 / UDMH
Modules: * Block 1 TLI level
  • Block 11 course corrections and braking maneuvers on the moon
  • Block 111 landing stage
  • Block 1V TEI level
  • Block V VA: capsule with heat shield
  • Block V1 ADU: rescue rocket (is blown off 93 seconds after takeoff)
Payload: LK-700 Block 111: 18.2 t
Manned mission data
Target object: moon
Crew: 3
EVA number: 2 (on the lunar surface)
EVA duration: 2–2.5 h

LK-700 was a Soviet lunar landing and ascent module proposed in 1964 as an alternative to the N1 . It was developed by Vladimir Nikolayevich Tschelomei and was based on a further development of the manned LK-1 probe. The LK-700 would have launched a UR-700 rocket to put three cosmonauts on a direct trajectory to the lunar surface and back again. This direct trajectory would have allowed the Soviet Union to land anywhere on the Earth-facing side of the moon. This draft was discarded in 1964.

Mission flow

Manned flights would have followed unmanned flights. The proposed sequence included two missions:

  • May 1972: First unmanned UR-700 / LK-700 flight. Further flights should have taken place in November 1972 and April 1973.
  • April 1973: First manned UR-700 / LK-700 flight. Further flights should have taken place in August and October 1973.

After the first LK-700 flights, the "Lunar Expeditionary Complex" would have been dropped on the moon with three flights:

  • 1. Flight: Establishment of a lunar base that enables a six-month stay.
  • 2nd flight: LK-700 with crew
  • 3rd flight: laboratory and rover to explore the lunar surface

Differences to the N1

The LK-700 in combination with a UR-700 booster rocket had two main differences to the N1 by Sergei Koroljow :

  • Instead of a landing and a lunar orbit module, it had only one module, with which the landing and the return flight to earth was started.
  • In addition, more efficient cryogenic drives were dispensed with.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What Would a Soviet Moon Landing Have Looked Like? D-News, July 22, 2013, accessed on January 18, 2018 .
  2. ↑ LK-700 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed May 30, 2016 (English).
  3. ↑ LEK Lunar Expeditionary Complex in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on May 30, 2016 (English).
  4. ^ Paul Drye: LK-700: The Soviet Union's Other Road to the Moon. In: False Steps. January 13, 2013, accessed May 31, 2016 .