Of moscows moon rocket images that were to be among the soviet unions most closely guarded state secrets. And pictures of cars minots training for a moon landing in the socalled star city near moscow the soviet union was determined to beat the United States in the race to put a man on the moon a race that would cost russian and american lives. The russians had always set the pace but in the end they ultimately lost the 20th centurys most prestigious race. Opened in 1957 Baikonur Cosmodrome was moscows gateway to the stars. After the launch of several sputnik satellites and unmanned moon probes in the late 1950 s. The whole world assumed that the soviets would also be using baikonur to send cosmonauts to the moon. There were certainly concrete plans but nothing was leaked there were no official statements nothing to indicate the soviet unions plans step of. All decisions on the Space Program were classified top secret including the moon program. I should admit but im going to have much in fact if you browse the newspapers of this time you wont find anything not even iraq the plans for the unmanned probes were for their war north america. Nowhere did it indicate we were working on my own projects or. One of them. Secrecy was the order of the day there were no preliminary briefings before the moon probes in 1959 nothing was to be revealed until the sensational mission was complete. Sergei cuttle yoffe the father of the soviet union space triumphs had been wondering for some time how to approach a moon landing was. Images from early soviet Science Fiction films inspired the imaginations of moonstruck rocket men like. On the river that is the way he said to me then in 25 years man will be on the moon. I said no thats Science Fiction maybe it will happen someday but we want to experience it. And he said it will happen and our lifetime. Is that the pretty that. But the vision of landing on the moon was still pure speculation perhaps simply outlandish dreams come early off realized that he needed a completely new rocket and a convincing argument. His legendary r 7 sputnik a carrier rocket was too weak to transport people to the moon but he hadnt even started yet is next triumph came in 1961 with you what he got in the 1st man in space. The kremlin boss was delighted with the coup whereas sputnik success had shocked the americans they got in flight humiliated them. Just a few days after the soviet triumph president kennedy announced a bold sunset foolhardy plan. American and abroad. I believe trip a minute. With heaving the. Air in the morning and returning him safely to the year. There was no official reaction from the kremlin but soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev called and missed his love kell the president of the soviet academy of sciences and asked him how serious kennedy was. To go to go. Kill this reply or that this was a serious statement. And that the americans were highly capable but that he didnt believe they would reach their goal by the end of the decade. Or their god in any case he said we were ready to take on such a challenge either khrushchev said well then we must think about it well where. So while it wasnt yet clear what the kremlin leader would decide it was clear that the us program would soak up huge resources and any soviet moonshot would cost at least as much. Was very torn did he want to could he even invest so much in such a vague project. He was ready to be forced. Into smaller well i mean but if you will have to pay a 1000000000 in the arena of the in the us he said look ive got i know im. Going to give the. Go forward to. The future and they can believe. What holder thought but also competition at that time was a petition over the but abduction per capita male coach but and meet. You think its city. Who will be the 1st place where we should use. Promote for agriculture was in a very bad state there was almost a famine the problem had to be solved the program. The fabric of the socialist economy was starting to unravel production plants were falling behind and there were widespread shortages of many communities agriculture was failing even after the major maize planting campaign ordered by khrushchev himself a campaign that prompted germanys newsmagazine desh to ask in 1962 maze or the moon. By that time kennedy had already inspected a mock up of the apollo space ship. The u. S. Was forging ahead while the soviets hadnt decided whether to join the race at all let alone whether they could afford it. At the vienna summit a year earlier the u. S. President had twice offered to Work Together with the soviets to send a man to the moon. Whether he meant it seriously or not khrushchev twice said nyet. Back home near moscow the rocket men were already in the starting blocks and raring to go the kremlins refusal to commit left them frustrated and angry. But chief designer left no stone unturned in his attempts to persuade the kremlin boss to change his mind. Was that. He was here for official but i would read it carlo. Told here were both told the story of. Courage of knew quite well how to sell his moon project he promised that the armed forces would be able to use the. Technology afterwards which made the project seem relatively inexpensive but that was a lie. 1962 finally brought the 1st ray of hope. Was told to come up with more precise plans for his end one moon rocket. Meanwhile his r 7 rocket was knocking up new records and creating new heroes for public consumption tito of the poets nikolayev and in the summer of 63 Valentina Tereshkova the 1st woman in space. But colonel yobs moon landing project continued to lose ground to the americans the teams at the Baikonur Cosmodrome were ready and waiting for their marching orders which didnt come. Their u. S. Challengers were baffled theyd been flying espionage missions since the 1950 s. And had assumed the soviets would not let them win without a fight. Despite planes had been monitoring the r 7 launch facility since the outset and it was thought that a moon shot could not be launched from there. Often the cias analysts couldnt believe their eyes. The thing about it though with the satellites or that youre a same a same thing about iraq 3rd 4th and that that you have to if youre down or constructing something. Youve got to do it well because weve got are. But the u. S. Just couldnt find anything there was simply no evidence of a Lunar Program. Then in 1964 they saw a lot of new activity and construction sites at baikonur. It was the 1st indication that moscow was planning something bigger after all. In fact the construction work had been running at full speed since august when khrushchev had finally given the green light for a manned moon mission. Soviet cause minots would be working around the clock from then on. The movement to be a means to start up we had 24 hour shifts sometimes we couldnt go home for several weeks but we slept at work on the tables covered with a fur jacket and with a cap under our heads. But in my grannys after the birth of my 1st child i couldnt pick my wife up from the hospital because i had to work much of the food there was more interesting. When we had to make a lot of sacrifices you know. But i still look back on this time as the happiest time of my life. The kremlin had decreed that colonel ya would deliver the new n one moon rocket by 966 but everyone knew that was just an illusion. In fact there is much to suggest that the race to the moon had been lost before it had even begun. Not only because the americans were 3 years ahead. But also because of valentino. The gifted engineer had worked for coral yard for years but now refused to continue developing engines for him. A brutal power struggle between 2 alpha males had begun. Oh i dont know but in their bio the main culprit here wasnt karloff but groups go. Mainly due to his difficult character. Drasko thought rather highly of himself. And because of his character was unwilling to compromise. At one meeting in moscow the 2 almost came to blows in front of those present not even the kremlin leader himself could reconcile the squabbling technocrats it was an argument neither could win and a fatal disaster for the soviets moon program. The dispute was triggered by the question as to whether colonel yoffe would be prepared to use new engines which made use of some highly toxic components. Ever since a devastating missed launch of a military missile had killed more than 100. 00 people including some of his staff karl yob had been convinced that cliff engines were too dangerous for the launch stages of manned moon missiles. The images he had witnessed of the inferno had left deep scars in carl yards mind he was convinced that a false start would result. In more deaths. So he needed to find someone else to build the engines for him even though there was actually no replacement for glasgow in the end the contract went to nicole like his next of a designer who had previously only worked in the aircraft industry. But i look told off i will do with the Cruise Missile was his hope was what. Was one of the best design as but he was the best jet engine as i. Did receive his fly the best ferarri. Design i will though you will build the cruise ship. It will take when he will do it or maybe phil will never do it. Those werent the best conditions for a race where your competitor has been steadily working through its test program for the last 3 years. Each component would be tested until everything worked perfectly the soviets needed a miracle. But i dont cause what do people believe that. If it will be the part of this competition that he would have been the kind of a bit was and what if you think that you will fail. No good i know and i do it with you or go. Ready for us absolutely convinced that the moon landing would work 3 did it at the end it was also convinced he would experience it himself on another his powers of persuasion or so great that we believed it too. As long as calling off was a lie or there was no doubt in our minds of the 7 anybody ever read. Chief designer Sergey Carnegie off how to be both magician and manager carlo fortune. Could in fact everyone with his enthusiasm the people surrounding him or his true disciples. My up of you would have given your life for him. Or more which gobble up why it was he could have been a divisional commander to go there quibble are you there was or he was a real leader thats what they say a later version when you really bit people followed him they believed in him unconditionally. They thought he was doing everything right. Despite all the setbacks and delays the soviet Lunar Program slowly got going in 1965 alex alien of was the 1st man to float freely in space. A space walk outside the orbiting bush cut spacecraft was an important step on the way to the moon. Landings were obviously progressing. Assuming cia Reconnaissance Aircraft were also monitoring the construction of the huge new hangar in baikonur where the n one moon rocket was due to be assembled although they could only assume that that is what it was meant for the Americans Still had no contacts or sources in the inner esle nons of soviet power. Thousands of soviet workers and technicians were forbidden to speak about the new moon rocket. Everything was kept strictly under wraps. In a mock little skull that we were under constant pressure from the k. G. B. If we went on vacation and didnt tell anyone we were censored as a young kids. If you were traveling on the train and you went to the restaurant car to have dinner or just to sit and talk. With a cagey minder would come up to you these days maybe after half an hour they tap you on the shoulder and tell you it was time you went back to your seat and thats. The new n one moon rocket was bigger than anything the soviets had built before. The 1st stage had a diameter of 7000 meters but they had no way of transporting such a colossus. So they decided to build it on site which also meant the vast hangar had to be located right next to the launch pad. It was a big investment that would eat into the already tight budget with sometimes fatal consequences. Especially for the ground testing of the new rocket. That had to do more with get out the board we had big problems with the equipment on the ground. With the man fortunately the entire ground preparation for the flights especially the ground testing of all space gear wasnt carried out as normally it should have been. If you want to be successful you have to carry out the soil tests properly that. There were some test beds but no money for the new ones necessary to complete testing of the 1st stage no money no test beds no test of a gigantic 1st stage that was a new situation for all concerned a kind of intergalactic russian roulette. But everyone drew a cloak of silence over any difficulties. The cia was watching as best it could and trying to make sense out of what it was seeing it wasnt just the Huge Assembly hangar that had now caught its eye but also a big new construction site that suggested a new launch pad bigger than any before. We saw the pad. And the aperture of the hole in the center we measured it and that was 50 feet. Or less obviously was a big enough for that was pretty certain. That this missile was our big one. The analysts put together drawings and 3 d. Models from the shadows cast on the ground as a way of estimating the size of structures. It quickly became clear that this launch facility was for iraq at roughly the same size as the american saturn 5. The saturn 5 was already quite well advanced. The engine tests were almost complete the launch vehicle was well on schedule as was the apollo spacecraft itself. Carlyon his team. On the other hand was way behind their competitors as well as their own deadlines. The engines were still the big problem too weak to unreliable and too many 30 of them in the 1st stage alone. We knew that using so many engines would make the whole thing unreliable for shearson us up but we had no other solution at the time. Mostly if we lack the necessary technical and experimental know how we simply did not have the necessary resources. No easy sourcing. Its not just the moon rocket that was causing problems they hadnt even started thinking about the moon capsule. There werent even any models of it it was only on paper. But carl young remained optimistic. On what the player it really did not. Break ideal. He was able to motivate his employees. He could appear at the plant in the middle of the night and say. We have to work we have to be the 1st and i saw that the boss was with. And so they worked hard and put their heart and soul into it. He was able to inspire and organize large collectives. He always knew what he wanted and how to achieve it you know what you got that bit of. Writing to the new kremlin chief Leonid Brezhnev in 1965 he guaranteed the soviet union would carry out a moon landing by 968 carl you knew he had to keep the kremlin rulers happy. But he also knew that a manned Lunar Mission was still a long way off. For a little will. Swear to god for his very tense and very hard during this time score one vostok you know he didnt like a lot of what was going on. There i believe all things werent going the way they should or he was irritable and very disciplined. With your very new just a pretty unit. But the chief designer didnt give up theyve been making progress in spite of all the difficulties. But then fate intervened on january 14th 1966 courage of went into the hospital for a routine procedure. The minister of health was to perform the operation himself. For neither but theyre also careful minister of health pitofsky had a Good Relationship with my father. He thought he should treat a man of such social standing himself thats why he performed the operation he was actually a good surgeon. But carli of didnt survive the operation. There gaper i would get out of sergey probably overage coverage of died because of the failure of our doctors. Came obvious that there were not only disasters with missiles but also with people. The next day karl your body was laid in state in the moscow column hall his cosmonauts forming an honor guard their chief designer the man responsible for all their cosmic trials sergei puddle of each car yards at last became known to the public. His portrait on the kremlin wall was the 1st time most people had set eyes on this little known hero of the soviet union. And at last the americans found out who had humiliated them so often in the early years of the space race. But there was no word of a successor nothing had been decided. Theyre going to know that with the. Car death was completely unexpected. The owner was. Hard to find someone to match his personality quickly with the man that theyre for karloff was simply irreplaceable in many ways. Though is their game is slipping and. In one fell swoop the soviet moonshot had lost its visionary its clever manager with the links to the kremlin its great motivator and its driving force by stealing machine was appointed the new chief designer. Book it was a mistake and. When your he was his deputy who else could it have been in your book glory but he did not have coddled you off the authority he was a very weak personality. Which were issues can. Be seen was a weak leader recorded for him and there was another thing he also had a drinking problem but the more shocking it well. Within just a few weeks of taking office however the new chief designer had already notched up his 1st success the luna 9 probe made the 1st ever soft landing on the moon surface and sent back the 1st sensational photos. The next leap forward came just weeks later when luna 10 became the 1st satellite to take up a moon orbit. Internet sanaya a bit hard to laid out but life on the moon orbits. A great moment at the 23rd Party Congress of the communist party of the soviet union. Work on the actual Lunar Landing program may have been hitting snags but it wasnt meant for the headlines anyway. The top secret project was still in the running. Lunar cosmonauts. Were already being recruited no one was supposed to know how well trained the cosmonauts already were these are secret pictures from Lunar Landing training. The moon landing in star city near moscow was going perfectly according to plan. But all activity was indoors out of sight of the u. S. Spy planes. U. S. Intelligence was still focusing on baikonur although there was still nothing to suggest that a moon shot would be soaring over the steps of cas us done any time soon. The launch vehicle was far from ready. The americans could breathe easier especially