The film tells the story of the conquest of the Moon and the reasons for the closure of a large-scale project. Two great designers of the era - Academician Sergei Korolev and Wernher von Braun - challenged each other even before the launch of the first Earth satellite and both went down in history: Korolev launched the first satellite and Yuri Gagarin into space, and von Braun sent the first expedition to the Moon. The grandiose and dramatic project of Soviet cosmonautics, the N-1 lunar rocket, was never able to rise into the sky.
The Soviet Union began preparing for a trip to the Moon and Mars long before the first flight into space. To solve this super task, they began creating a heavy interplanetary ship, which was named "Tsar Rocket".
Mikhail Tikhonravov, John Kennedy, Sergei Korolev, von Braun, N-1, Keldysh, Leonov, Shatilov, Glushko, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, flight to the Moon, rocket launch, lunar rover.
Baikonur.
Wreckage of the Tsar Rocket Newsreel from 1959: OKB-1. Mikhail Tikhonravov’s group.
Working at drawing boards.
Newsreel from the 1960s: American astronauts at a spacecraft.
John Kennedy speaking.
American scientists at work.
Von Braun.
Kennedy.
USSR. Korolev.
Design Bureau.
Vladimir Bugrov, developer of spacecraft projects for flights to Mars and the Moon, speaking.
Notebook with spacecraft calculations.
Newsreel from the 1950s: N. Khrushchev.
Korolev.
Work in the design bureau, drawings.
Vladimir Bugrov speaking.
Newsreel from the 1950s: Khrushchev speaking.
Red Square, parade, military equipment.
Korolev.
Glushko at a rocket.
Design Bureau. S.P. Korolev’s deputy, Hero of Socialist Labor Sergei Kryukov speaking.
Newsreel from the 1950s: Korolev, Khrushchev at the table.
Vladimir Bugrov speaking.
Newsreel from the 1960s: Launch of the American lunar ship Apollo into orbit.
Korolev.
Testing at the proving ground.
Sergei Kryukov speaking.
Newsreel from the 1960s: Scientists in the design bureau.
Lunar spacesuit.
L-3 complex.
Drawings.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov speaking.
Cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov speaking.
Photo: Brezhnev with de Gaulle at Baikonur and others.
Newsreel from the 1960s: Ustinov.
N-1 rocket.
Work in the design bureau.
Newsreel from 1968: USA. Saturn 5 puts Apollo 8 on a trajectory to the Moon.
Scientists monitor the flight.
Cosmonaut in the rocket.
Newsreel from the 1960s: Testing.
Helicopter.
Keldysh.
N-1 rocket, people around the rocket.
A bottle of champagne is smashed against an installer.
Transportation of the N-1. Newsreel from 1969: Launch of the N-1. Scientists watch.
Grigory Sonis, head of the TsSKB-Progress branch, speaks.
Newsreel from 1969: Work on the N-1. Transportation of the N-1. Launch of the rocket.
Rocket crash.
Explosion.
Grigory Sonis speaks.
Newsreel from 1969: Launch of Apollo 11, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the Moon.
American astronauts drive through the streets of the city and are greeted.
Newsreel from the 1970s: Scientists at the design bureau.
Work on the rocket.
Transportation of the rocket.
Newsreel from 1971: Third unsuccessful launch of the N-1. Space technology tester Vladimir Antipov speaks.
A crater in the steppe at Baikonur, N-1 debris.
Vladimir Antipov shows the debris.
Newsreel from 1971: Dobrovolsky's crew.
Death of Dobrovolsky's crew.
Debris.
Helicopter.
Carrying bodies.
Transporting the rocket.
American lunar rover on the Moon. 4th launch of the N-1. Explosion of the N-1. Speaking with the deputy general director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, former deputy head of the Baikonur Cosmodrome Valery Menshikov.
Newsreel from the 1970s: Designers at Baikonur near the N-1 rocket.
Working on the rocket.
Designer Mishin.
Valentin Glushko.
Speaking with the chief engineer of the TsSKB-Progress branch Nina Omysova.
Newsreel from the 1970s: Baikonur.
Speaking with the deputy.
Head of TsSKB-Progress Anatoly Pavlov at Baikonur.
Debris from the Tsar Rocket.
Newsreel: Korolev at Baikonur, sitting next to the rocket.
Military space technology tester Sergei Tikhonov speaking.
Newsreel: The N-1 rocket at the cosmodrome.
Festive demonstration.
Military space technology tester Viktor Kulepetov speaking.
Newsreel: Rocket.
Meeting at the design bureau.
Academician Boris Chertok speaking.
Newsreel: Korolev at Baikonur, among the military.
Newsreel: American space tests, astronauts, space technology.
Newsreel from the 1960s: Korolev.
Korolev shaking Gagarin's hand.