[FPSPACE] Any input?

[Edwin Cameron]

Charlie, et al,
 
First, I congratulate the engineers, constructors and designers of the N1 for putting twelve men onto the surface of the Moon.  Yes, they were astronauts not cosmonauts.  Nonetheless, it was the very presence of the N1 program, seen from orbiting reconnaissance satelites, that pushed the United States' Congress to continue the Apollo program.  Without the visible progress of the N1 program, it is not likely that Saturn V Apollo missions would have continued to a Moon landing.
 
Four launched payloads on boosters 3L, 5L, 6L and 7L, each was different from the others.  But, each booster was also different.  Only one of these was launched in haste to beat Apollo 11...  What was the rush?  Apollo 8 had already orbited the Moon, so a simple slingshot L1-type PROTON mission made absoultely no sense.  After Apollo 8, a crewless N1 L1-type mission (3L) didn't seem quite plausible.  For the July 3, 1969 5L launch attempt, a manned mission more like Apollo 10 would have better fit the hurried N1 timetable, if not the full fledged lunar landing attempt.
 
I believe the statement by M. Keldysh after the conclusion of the Soyuz 6, 7 & 8 flights in 1969 made it pretty clear that the Soviet side of the Moon Race was over and that permanent presence in orbit was their redirected goal.  I have tried for many of the nearly 38 years to find definitive photos or video of the N1 - 6L launch, especially since V.K. Karrask sketched his version of an N1 shroud in my notes, July 1991.  It was NOT an L1 or L3 shroud. 
 
I still hope we'll find the answers, and the history as it actually happened, not just the way some wanted it to appear.
 
Cheers,
Ed
 
 
 
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:55:10 -0400
From: "Charles Vick" <cpvick at globalsecurity.org>
Subject: [FPSPACE] Any input?

July 3rd cometh and we still after forty years do not know what the 5L
payload was or do we? 

Does anybody have any real input to this since it is now known that none of
the other N1 payloads were identical to the other previous and subsequent
payloads?

cpvick
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