The N1 rocket's fourth failure ends the Soviet Moon programme
1972 · Event
The giant N1 — the Soviet Saturn V — explodes on its fourth and final test, seconds from a clean flight. With the Americans already six landings deep, Moscow quietly cancels the programme and pretends it never raced for the Moon at all. The secret holds until the 1990s.
On these timelines: The Space Race, Russia & the USSR, Master
More from The Space Race
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- Sputnik launch (1957)
- Yuri Gagarin: first human in space (1961)
- Apollo program announcement (1961)
- Kennedy's 'We choose to go to the Moon' speech (1962)
- 'One small step': the Moonwalk broadcast (1969)
- Apollo 17 leaves the Moon (1972)
- Gemini 6 and 7 rendezvous in orbit (1965)
Around 1972
- Iranian Revolution (1978)
- Vietnam War (American phase) (1965)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- The Troubles (1968)
- Six-Day War (1967)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Prague Spring (1968)
- Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
- Night Fever (Bee Gees) (1978)