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Part 1 Soyuz {|cellspacing=10 cellpadding="15" width="100%" border="0" The Soviet lunar effort thus became a two-pronged enterprise. Both prongs depended heavily on the Original Soyuz spacecraft. It was patterned after the Soyuz-A component of the 1963 prospectus. It carried a simple docking system which permitted crew transfer only by extravehicular activity (EVA). The Original Soyuz served the same role as the Gemini spacecraft did in U.S. lunar plans, and more besides. Like Gemini, the Original Soyuz was an interim vehicle, filling the gap between the earliest manned programs and the lunar program. Like Gemini, the Original Soyuz provided the means for preparing men, machines, and procedures in space for the lunar program. Unlike Gemini, the Original Soyuz provided the structural basis for the lunar spacecraft.
 * align="top" align="left" rowspan="1" colspan="2" |[[Image:Mir-7.jpg|400px|center]] Figure 1-5., Soyuz A-B-C circumlunar concept. The drawing shows Soyuz-A (right), Soyuz-B booster, and Soyuz-C tanker with twin whip antennae (left).
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By the end of 1965, the Soviet manned lunar program included three vehicles, all based to a greater or lesser degree on the Original Soyuz. They were


 * The L1, a stripped-down version of the Original Soyuz known as Zond (“probe”) meant for circumlunar flights
 * The L2, a beefed-up version of the Original Soyuz called the Lunar Orbit Module—the Soviet counterpart to the U.S. Apollo command and service module (CSM)
 * The L3, the lunar lander

The Soviet lunar program was hobbled by underfunding and more than its share of misfortune. In January 1966, Korolev died from complications during surgery. The Soyuz 1 disaster, in April 1967, set back the lunar landing schedule by 18 mo. Bitter personal rivalries between leaders in the Soviet space program also interfered with the goal of landing a cosmonaut on the Moon.
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1.2.3 Polyot 1 and 2 (1963-1964)
The mysterious Polyot 1 (November 1963) and Polyot 2 (April 1964) maneuverable satellite flights were once thought to have been tests of Korolev’s Soyuz-B component. In 1992, however, a Russian book stated that the Polyots were antisatellite (ASAT) weapon test vehicles developed by V. N. Chelomei’s OKB-52 organization (ancestor of today’s NPO Mashinostroyeniye). A Russian article published the same year stated that the Polyots were tests of the propulsion systems for OKB-52’s Almaz military space stations. Another account had the Polyots testing engines to be used in Chelomei’s reusable space plane program. It is possible that the Polyots tested engines to be used in all three programs. In any case, the Polyots were not directly related to the Soyuz program.
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1.2.4 Manned Lunar Program (1964-1976)
Soviet Communist Party Central Committee Command 655-268 officially established the Soviet manned circumlunar and lunar landing programs on August 3, 1964. The preliminary plan for the Soviet manned lunar landing program was approved by Korolev on December 25, 1964. The N-1/L3 program, as it was called, would have landed a single cosmonaut on the Moon in 1967-68. The mission plan assumed successful development of a large rocket called the N-1. Studies leading to the N-1 had begun in 1956, and work began in earnest in 1960.

The circumlunar program was retained. By late 1965, however, relying on multiple launches of components and extensive use of Earth-orbit rendezvous to assemble the circumlunar spacecraft was abandoned in favor of a single launch using a four-stage Proton rocket.
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