Editing Soviet crewed lunar programs (section)

==Early concepts==
[[File:Tmk-mavr.jpg|thumb|Artist's depiction of TMK-MAVR on a [[Venus]] flyby]]
As early as 1961, the Soviet leadership had made public pronouncements about landing a man on the [[Moon]] and establishing a [[lunar base]]; however, serious plans were not made until several years later. [[Sergei Korolev]], the senior Soviet rocket engineer, was more interested in launching a heavy orbital station and in [[TMK|crewed flights to Mars and Venus]].<ref name="HarveyZakutnyaya2011">{{cite book|author1=Brian Harvey|author2=Olga Zakutnyaya|title=Russian Space Probes: Scientific Discoveries and Future Missions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6qyVkapjeoC&pg=PA211|year=2011|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4419-8150-9|pages=211–}}</ref> With this in mind, Korolev began the development of the super-heavy [[N-1 rocket]] with a 75-ton payload.

===Soyuz-A-B-C and N1===
[[File:Soyuz-A-B-C circumlunar complex drawing.png|thumb|Soyuz 7K-9K-11K circumlunar concept. The drawing shows Soyuz 7K (right), [[Soyuz-B]]/Soyuz 9K booster, and [[Soyuz-V]]/Soyuz 11K tanker with twin whip antennas (left)]]
In its preliminary Moon plans, Korolev's design bureau initially promoted the [[Soyuz spacecraft|Soyuz]] [[Soyuz A|A-B-C circumlunar complex]] (A-B-V in Russian) concept under which a two-crew spacecraft would ''rendez-vous'' with other components in Earth orbit to assemble a lunar flyby excursion vehicle. The components would then be delivered by the proven middle-sized [[R-7 (rocket family)|R-7]] rocket. While developing the N1, since 1963, Korolev began to plan a Moon landing mission using two launches and docking. Later Korolev managed to increase the payload of the N1 to 92-93 tons (by switching to liquid hydrogen in the upper stage(s) and increasing the number of engines in its first stage from 24 to 30), providing enough power to accomplish the mission with a single launch.

===UR-500K / LK-1 and UR-700 / LK-3===
Another main space design bureau, headed by [[Vladimir Chelomei]], proposed a competing [[cislunar]] orbiting mission using a heavy UR-500K rocket (later renamed the [[Proton rocket]]) and a two-crew [[LK-1]] spacecraft. Later, Chelomei also proposed a Moon landing program with a super-heavy [[UR-700]] rocket, an [[LK-700]] lunar lander, and an [[LK-3]] spacecraft.<ref>{{cite book|title=JBIS: Journal of the British Interplanetary Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iThWAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=British Interplanetary Society}}</ref>

===R-56=== 
The [[R-56 (rocket)|R-56]] which was developed between April 1962 and June 1964 was considered for involvement with the lunar program.<ref name=Harvey61>{{cite book |last=Harvey |first=Brian |date=2007 |title=Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration |publisher=Springer-Praxis |pages=61–62 |isbn=978-0387218960}}</ref><ref name=Hendrickx>{{cite journal |last1=Hendrickx |first1=Bart |date=2011 |title=Heavy Launch Vehicles of the Yangel Design Bureau – Part 1 |url=http://www.bis-space.com/belgium/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/yangelrockets1.pdf |journal=Journal of the British Interplanetary Society |volume=64 |pages=2–24 |access-date=9 July 2020 |archive-date=23 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123152928/http://www.bis-space.com/belgium/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/yangelrockets1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>