[URGENTE] Conheça o Foguete N1 da Rússia: O Gigante que Nunca Chegou à Lua #FogueteN1 #Corrida

Video from the channel Cosmos e Além about N1, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:29. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Documentary.

Portuguese-language explainer video about the N1, the rocket with which the Soviet Union wanted to send cosmonauts to the Moon in the middle of the space race, as an answer to the American Saturn V and the Apollo program.

The secret project is attributed to Sergei Korolev, already responsible for Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin's flight. The video stresses the political pressure and the urgency of the rivalry with the United States, which landed on the Moon in 1969, and notes that the N1's existence stayed hidden for decades.

Instead of a few large engines, the first stage grouped 30 NK-15 engines in two rings, a solution that was hard to synchronize. The rocket stood about 105 m tall and about 17 m in diameter at the base. It flew four times between 1969 and 1972, and every attempt ended in an explosion; the July 1969 launch destroyed the rocket and badly damaged the launch pad. The video attributes the failures to haste and insufficient engine testing, and notes that the N1 never reached orbit before the program was abandoned.