LK-700

LK-700
Manufacturer OKB-52
Country of origin Soviet Union
Operator Soviet space program
Applications Land cosmonauts on the Moon and bring them back to Earth
Production
Status Canceled
Related spacecraft
Derived from LK-1
Derivatives TKS spacecraft

LK-700 was a Soviet direct ascent lunar lander program proposed in 1964.[1] It was developed by Vladimir Chelomey as an alternative to the N1-L3 program. It was also a further development of the LK-1 lunar flyby spacecraft.

It would have been launched using the proposed UR-700[2] rocket (related to the Proton rocket) with a crew of three cosmonauts on a direct flight to the lunar surface and back. The direct landing approach would allow the Soviets to land anywhere on the moon's nearside.[3] The program was canceled in 1974.

Mission profile

Unmanned flights would be followed by manned flights. The proposed schedule was:

Following initial LK-700 landings, the more ambitious Lunar Expeditionary Complex (LKE) would be delivered to the surface in three UR-700 launches:

Characteristics

References

  1. "LK-700". astronautix.com. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  2. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ur700.html
  3. "What Would a Soviet Moon Landing Have Looked Like?". DNews. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, July 06, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.