Soviets on the Moon

The abandoned Soyuz manned lunar programme would have featured circumlunar missions under the L1 programme on the Proton launch vehicle (later flown unmanned by Zond spacecraft), and manned lunar landing (L3) missions launched on the massive N1. Though the N1 was launched unmanned four times between 1969 and 1972, each failed just seconds into flight, effectively putting the final nail in the coffin of the Soviet manned lunar programme that had been beaten by the success of Apollo.

Chinese orbital launch vehicle

The Long March 2F booster will be the workhorse of the Chinese manned spacecraft programme, carrying further Shenzhou craft into orbit. Unmanned launches com­menced in November 1999, with the first manned flight made in 2003 and the second in 2005.

This vehicle is an adaptation of the Long March 2E, which was upgraded for manned flight. In 2002, it received the official name of Shenjian (Magic Arrow). The height of the vehicle (with shroud and launch tower) is 58.34 m and it features a central core first stage of four YF-20B engines (300-ton thrust) and four strap-on boosters each with the YF-20 engine (300-ton thrust). The second stage features a single YF-22 engine with 93.5-ton thrust.