Soyuz 7K-L3

The Soyuz 7K-L3 LOK was designed to launch men from Earth to circle the moon and developed in parallel to the 7K-L1. The LOK -"Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl" would carry two cosmonauts into orbit around the Moon, acting as "mother" spacecraft for the LK Lander, which would land one member of the crew to the surface.

Design

The Soyuz 7K-L3 is based on both the unmanned Zond 7K-L1 lunar flyby vehicle and the first-generation Soyuz 7K-OK earth-orbital manned spacecraft. Like the 7K-OK model, the 7K-L3 was divided into three sections, an ellipsoid Orbital Module, the "headlight"-shaped Descent Module, and a cylindrical equipment module. Like the 7K-OK, the 7K-L3 was capable of physically docking with the LK Lander, but lacked the transfer tunnel used on the Apollo Spacecraft, thus forcing the cosmonaut to make a spacewalk from the 7K-L3's orbital module to the LK Lander using the new Krechet space suit (the predecessor to the Orlan space suits used today on the International Space Station).

Other changes to the 7K-L3 was the elimination of the solar panels used on the 7K-OK, replacing them with fuel cells similar to those found on the Apollo CSM. Another feature, a "cupola" located on the Orbital Module, allowed the cosmonaut in the 7K-L3 to perform the docking procedure with the LK Lander after lunar liftoff. Only the Descent Module from the 7K-L1, with a thicker, reinforced heatshield, is used on the 7K-L3 and like the 7K-L1, is capable of doing a "skip" reentry so that the Soyuz can be recovered in the former Soviet Union.

Flights

Only two 7K-L3's have been flown in the short lifespan of the failed Soviet lunar program, both of them atop the N-1 rocket, and both times being pulled by the launch escape system when those boosters failed. These two aborted flights later proved that the launch-escape system worked when a similar problem on a Soyuz rocket forced the Soyuz T-10a to be jettisoned with its cosmonaut crew in 1983 before the booster exploded on the launchpad, destroying it. On later flights of the N-1, both of them failures, only dummy spacecraft were used, and they, along with the booster, were destroyed.

Future

Although never flown in actual spaceflight, the planned joint Russian/ESA ACTS missions to the Moon, planned as a response to NASA's Project Constellation, will see the resurrection, somewhat, of the 7K-L3 spacecraft, but with the current Soyuz TMA hardware (solar panels, docking & transfer system, etc.) being used.

External links