Reddit reviews Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon

There were several key elements to the Soviet manned moon program. The spacecraft components were the Soyuz 7K-LOK (the equivalent of the Apollo CSM) and the LK Lander (the equivalent of the LM). The major launch component was the N1 rocket. Additionally, the Soviets developed the Zond spacecraft for manned flybys of the moon on a free return trajectory which could be launched on the Proton rocket.

Unfortunately, every launch attempt of the N1 failed and the Soviets were never able to achieve any degree of operational success in their moon program. By 1969 the Soviets had the capability on paper to launch manned spacecraft to orbit the moon, but not land on it. It was not until 1974 that LK lander development was finished, they even planned another N1 launch attempt with an unmanned LOK/LK stack to attempt a robotic dry run of a moon landing. But by they decided not to push their luck with the N1 and the cancellation of further Apollo landings reduced the pressure to try to keep up.

Hypothetically, if nothing had failed and the Soviets were aggressive at putting crews on launches then they could have put a man on the moon by 1974, perhaps a few years earlier. Somewhat more realistically, if they had not cancelled their program and didn't have any other major N1 failures then they probably would have been able to make a landing in 1975 or so.

Further Reading:

• Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974 by Asif Siddiqi
  
• Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon by James Harford

I understand the sentiment, and I've been in very demanding jobs too, and if it's not rewarding in a way that matters to you then it sucks. Believe me, I know.

But look at it this way: if you want a cushy job, stay with the average employer. If you want to be part of the new chapter in space exploration, be prepared to do what the best and the brightest in that field do.

Conquering space is not gonna happen on a 9 to 5 schedule. But being an average citizen and watching that conquest on Youtube is totally doable within a lifestyle supported by a 9 to 5 kind of job.

Make your choice and accept the consequences.

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P.S.:

Read the biography of Sergey Korolev, the "russian Elon Musk" back in the '50s and '60s. He had a very similar leadership style as Elon's and a great deal of his genius too. His people were working round the clock to shoot Sputnik 1 up into orbit; not because the Kremlin was demanding it, but because they truly believed they were writing history - which they definitely were.

Great achievements require great efforts.

Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon

Red Moon Rising by Brzezinski is an engaging, novel-like quick read that dramatizes and summarizes the early space race. Side-by-side history of early US and Soviet space rocketry. Great stuff on the inheritance of the V-2 tech after WWII.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Moon-Rising-Sputnik-Rivalries/dp/080508858X

Korolev by James Harford is about the man without whom the space race wouldn’t have happened. A bit dry (academic) at times, but a well researched book with lots of cool details from first-hand interviews. Korolev was a fascinating guy. An under-appreciated giant of the 20th century.
https://www.amazon.com/Korolev-Masterminded-Soviet-Drive-America/dp/0471327212

Starman by Pierce and Bizony on the meteoric rise and end of Yuri Gagarin. Very engaging. Read for the story of Komarov!
https://www.amazon.com/Starman-Truth-Behind-Legend-Gagarin-ebook/dp/B0052LUE80

Into That Silent Sea/In the Shadow of the Moon by French and Burgess. Another side-by-side. Great history from pre-Sputnik to Apollo, the moon, beyond. Lots of good stuff about individuals on both sides.
https://www.amazon.com/Into-That-Silent-Sea-Trailblazers/dp/080322639X/

Russian Wikipedia. Seriously, run it through Google’s page translate feature, keep a tab open for google translate so you can copy-paste search terms in Russian. Lots of extra info on RU Wikipedia vs EN Wikipedia.

Kamanin’s Diaries. Kamanin was a Red Army General that got assigned as personnel handler for the Cosmonauts. His diaries of the early days are probably the best primary source for and industry forged in a time of uber-secrecy. I haven’t found a full English translation.

English Summaries:
http://www.astronautix.com/k/kamanindiaries.html

Russian Language:
http://militera.lib.ru/db/kamanin_np/index.html

I highly recommend reading Starman and Korolev they both really bring a lot of perspective to the cosmonaught program while really highlighting why it was such a cluster fuck of KGB involvement and soviet politics.

I gained enormous amounts of respect for both men after reading the books.

Russian book called Hidden Cosmos. The Russian wiki has a pretty good writeup, but it's in Russian.

Edit: Also, James Harford has a much more serious and concerning performance appraisal based on interviews in the 90s with retired Soviet (now Russian) flight planners in his book on Korolev. Here's a link to the book on Amazon, if you're interested in Soviet space history. Its excellent.

Most of the wikipedia links are to airplanes or rockets, because wikimedia is an easy reference for pictures. Non-wikipedia sources are included in each comment, below are some others.

[Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon] (http://www.amazon.com/Korolev-Masterminded-Soviet-Drive-America/dp/0471327212/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41ZjHiVXSTL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR106%2C160_&refRID=0VVV61Y70PS29GB1J8WY)

[The Politics of Space : a Comparison of the Soviet and American Space Programs] (http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Space-Comparison-American-Programs/dp/0841901856/ref=sr_1_1_twi_unk_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449700911&sr=1-1&keywords=The+politics+of+space+%3A+a+comparison+of+the+Soviet+and+American+space+programs)

[Eisenhower and the Cold War Arms Race: 'Open Skies' and the Cold War Arms Race] (http://www.amazon.com/Eisenhower-Cold-War-Arms-Race/dp/1780762798/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449701131&sr=1-1&keywords=Eisenhower+open+skies+arms+race)

The next one is not a book, but a journal article from the peer reviewed Journal of American History:

The Sputniks Crisis and Early United States Space Policy: A Critique of the Historiography of Space.


Happy reading :)