LK-1

The LK-1 was the spacecraft designed by Chelomei for the original Soviet manned lunar flyby project, and it was cancelled in 1965. Its design was said to have been ordered informally by Khrushchev on 13 May 1961 in response to the American Apollo program, and authorization to proceed with it and the three-stage UR-500K launch vehicle came in the omnibus lunar project decree of 3 August 1964. Twelve were to be built in 1965 and 1966 with a first flight in 1967. The spacecraft had an emergency escape engine unit, a conical re-entry capsule for one or two cosmonauts only 2.8 metres across, and an equipment and rocket block comparable to the Apollo service module. In October 1965 Korolev managed to have the project cancelled and began development of his Soyuz 7K-L1 with a Block D stage in its place, while the LK-1 re-entry vehicle and propulsion systems carried on into the LK-700 lunar lander and the TKS space station resupply vehicle.