Why did the Russians never bother to land a man on the moon?
It was beyond the abilities of their space agency with the budget they were given. In order to get to the Moon they built a huge rocket called the N-1. It was more powerful than the Saturn V in terms of the thrust it generated at liftoff. However, they never got it to work. The US had succeeded in perfecting metallurgical techniques and rocketry to the point where they could build a huge engine that would deliver 1.5million pounds of thrust. The Saturn V rocket used five of them to provide the lift necessary to get the huge vehicle off the ground and on its way to orbit. The Russians never developed that technique, and the N-1 used no fewer than thirty engines in the first stage to deliver the thrust needed. Unfortunately the Russian space agency was never allocated the funds needed to build a test facility that would allow them to test the first stage before they tried to launch the rocket, and when they did try to launch the rocket they discovered quickly that it didn’t work. A combi
