Lunar Expeditionary Complex Explained

The LEK Lunar Expeditionary Complex was a lunar expedition and Moon base proposed by Valentin Glushko in 1974 as a Soviet response to the United States' Apollo program and as a successor to the Zvezda moonbase, which was based on the cancelled N1-L3 crewed Moon expedition program. If implemented, it was intended to have been operational by 1980 and used for scientific and engineering research.

Hardware

The Vulkan-LEK project was based on new superheavy launcher developed in Glushko's bureau.

The moonbase design consisted of a number of modules, including:

Project termination

The project was cancelled in 1976 when a Russian Academy of Sciences Commission ruled that resources should be targeted toward projects primarily adding economic value rather than for national prestige.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lunokhod LEK . www.astronautix.com . 2008-02-05 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080117192700/http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunodlek.htm . 2008-01-17 .