| DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOON ROCKETS | ||
Meanwhile, the Russians were developing a new, larger booster rocket with enough thrust to send two cosmonauts on a looping flight around the Moon. The rocket was called Proton, and the spacecraft that it carried was called Zond. The Zond flights were unmanned crafts launched to orbit the Moon, although some were also sent to other planets in the solar system. The flights lasted from 1964 to 1979 and laid much of the groundwork for the Soviet’s manned lunar missions. Then another new rocket, the N-1, powerful enough to land on the Moon, was finished. The engine for the N-1 produced 340,000 pounds of thrust. The N-1 rocket would employ 30 of these new engines, for a combined thrust of over 10 million pounds. |
|
|
| 42 of 60 | ||