Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration

aspect of the plan. Alexander Shargei (AKA Yuri Kondratyuk) had outlined such a
method, but again it depended on a rocket much bigger than anything immediately in
prospect.
Origins of the manned Soviet moon programme, 1959-64
1959 Start of studies by Mikhail Tikhonravov in Department #9, OKB-1.
1962 Vostok Zh study.
1962 First design of the Soyuz complex (10th March).
Endorsed by government (16th April).
Second set of blueprints (24th December).
1963 Definitive design of the Soyuz complex (10th May).
Approval by government (3rd December).
The design for the Soyuz complex required rendezvousing spacecraft to come within
20 km of one another on their first orbit so as to prepare for subsequent docking. This
was something which the Vostok programme, limited though it was, could put to the
test. On 11th August 1962, the third Vostok was put into orbit, manned by Andrian
Nikolayev. Vostok 4 was put into orbit with Pavel Popovich exactly one day later, so
precisely that it approached to within 5 km of Vostok 3 on its first orbit. This close
approach was much better than anticipated. Both ships orbited the Earth together for
three days, though unable to manoeuvre and drifting ever farther apart. In June 1963,
Vostok 6, with Valentina Terreskhova on board, came to within 3 km of Vostok 5.
Even though there was never any prospect of the ships coming together, the two group
flights were a demonstration of how close spaceships could come on their first orbit.
The cosmonauts communicated with one another during their missions and ground
control learned how to follow two missions simultaneously.
Although these missions had been put together at relatively short notice and in an
unplanned way to respond to the flights of the American Mercury programme, this
was not at all how the missions had been interpreted in the West. The Vostok missions
were seen as a carefully orchestrated series of events leading up to a flight to the moon.
When Pavel Popovich joined Andrian Nikolayev in orbit, the Associated Press
speculated that an attempt might be made to bring the spacecraft together before
setting out on a loop to the moon. It was almost as if the agency had seen the designs of
the Soyuz complex.
During the 1963 conference of the International Astronautical Federation in
Paris, Yuri Gagarin told the assembled delegates:
A flight to the moon requires a space vehicle of tens of tonnes and it is no secret that
such large rockets are not yet available. One technique is the assembly of parts of
spaceships in near-Earth orbit. Once in orbit the components could be collected
together, joined up and supplied with propellant. The flight could then begin.
This was not how the Americans were planning to go to the moon - NASA had opted
for Shargei's LOR method - and many people were skeptical as to how truthful Yuri
Gagarin was actually being. The Russians must be racing the Americans to a moon