The Explorers' Club, № CMXXXIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 54th Anniversary of the N1-3L Debacle
21 February 1969: N1-3L lifted off from from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome, the first test flight of an N1 rocket, carrying a Zond L1S-1 spacecraft; within seconds of liftoff, several of the thirty engines in the first stage malfunctioned; pogo oscillation ruptured fuel lines, starting a fire; the engine control system shut down the remaining first stage engines & the entire rocket crashed to earth.

Commentary: Pray pardon me for the delay in circling back to the first of the four failed flights of the N1. The Soviet Moonshot was doomed due to the late start of N1 development (October 1965), the early death of chief engineer Sergei Korolev (January 1966), & the petty rivalries between different Soviet design centers. After the cancellation of the Soviet lunar program in May 1974, the official U.S.S.R. line denied they had ever worked on a Moon landing program, not admitting the truth 'til the glasnost era (1990).

Before the end of 1969, the Soviets would suffer another N1 failure, N1-5L, which destroyed its own launch pad. Meanwhile, the Americans would have four triumphant Saturn V launches—Apollo 9, Apollo 10, Apollo 11, & Apollo 12—including three flights to & from lunar orbit, two Moon landings, & four Moonwalkers, definitively winning the Space Race.

Bonus! Destination Moon Song o' the Day: The N1-3L Debacle
Dennis McCarthy, "Out of Control / The Crash" from Star Trek Generations (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Wayback Machine Tour of the N1 Rocket
№ DCCLVII: The 51st Anniversary of the N1-5L Debacle
№ DCCCXXVI: The 50th Anniversary of the N1-6L Debacle
№ CMXVII: The 50th Anniversary of the N1-7L Debacle

Semper exploro.