Soviet crewed lunar programs

The Soviet crewed lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a> to <a href="/facts/Moon_landing/RMXHoEpg">land humans on the Moon</a>, <a href="/facts/Space_Race/9fPV4LUq">in competition</a> with the United States <a href="/facts/Apollo_program/IC1Ek1Ao">Apollo program</a>. The Soviet government publicly denied participating in such a competition, but secretly pursued two programs in the 1960s: crewed lunar flyby missions using <a href="/facts/Soyuz_7K-L1/CyPlMKlg">Soyuz 7K-L1</a> (Zond) spacecraft launched with the <a href="/facts/Proton-K/TyynRg0F">Proton-K</a> rocket, and a crewed lunar landing using <a href="/facts/Soyuz_7K-LOK/tLuNWavJ">Soyuz 7K-LOK</a> and <a href="/facts/LK_(spacecraft)/6uql7zt4">LK</a> spacecraft launched with the <a href="/facts/N1_(rocket)/7dVhShJU">N1 rocket</a>. Following the dual American successes of the first crewed lunar orbit on 24–25 December 1968 (<a href="/facts/Apollo_8/uKkRsnSL">Apollo 8</a>) and the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969 (<a href="/facts/Apollo_11/BdUKVnQP">Apollo 11</a>), and a series of catastrophic N1 failures, both Soviet programs were eventually brought to an end. The Proton-based Zond program was canceled in 1970, and the N1-L3 program was <a href="/facts/De_facto/3Du6WQKh">de facto</a> terminated in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976. Details of both Soviet programs were kept secret until 1990 when the government allowed them to be published under the policy of <a href="/facts/Glasnost/Pp0T5LG2">glasnost</a>.
Soviet cosmonauts neither orbited nor landed on the Moon.

Soviet crewed lunar programs open-in-new

Soviet crewed lunar programs