• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Space / What Was the USSR’s First Manned Lunar Program and What Was the Soyuz Spacecraft Used For?

What Was the USSR’s First Manned Lunar Program and What Was the Soyuz Spacecraft Used For?

August 1, 2020 by Karen Hill

The USSR launched five missions (Zond 4-8) between 1968 and 1970, apparently as tests for a manned Moon landing, but the exact purpose of the missions has never been fully revealed to the scientific community.

The Soviet lunar program was dropped 3 years after U.S. astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin made it to the Moon and back.

The Soviet program seems to have depended on creating a new booster rocket.

The N-booster, as it was known, used a total of forty-four rocket engines in five stages to send a two-man Soyuz spacecraft to orbit the Moon and a one-man lunar module to land.

Rather than use a tunnel to reach the lunar module in space, a cosmonaut would have had to make a dangerous space walk to enter it.

The Soyuz spacecraft never made it to the Moon, but it has been a very useful vehicle in Earth’s orbit.

Soyuz derivatives provide Russia’s human spaceflight capability and are used to ferry personnel and supplies to and from the International Space Station.

Related Facts

  • How Many Modules Did NASA’s Apollo Spacecraft Have and How Was the Command Module Linked To the Lunar Module?
  • The Best 20 Inventions Ever Invented
  • What Was the Function of the Apollo Lunar Module and How Was the Lunar Module Designed To Land On the Moon?
  • How Does the Moon Always Keep the Same Face Toward Earth?
  • How Many Tragedies Have There Been In Space and What Was NASA’s First Fatal Accident On a Spacecraft?
  • What Was the Last Lunar Lander of the Surveyor Program To Explore the Surface of the Moon and When?

Filed Under: Space

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « How Many Tragedies Have There Been In Space and What Was NASA’s First Fatal Accident On a Spacecraft?
Next Post: What Was the Space Shuttle Originally Designed For and How Many Astronauts Can the Space Shuttle Carry? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy