Updated November 9, 2018

Figuring out how a big event came to pass is like solving a riddle. They rarely occur in a vacuum, any important development is usually the culmination of a chain of events. Sometimes something historically significant passes without drawing much attention. Sometimes only one or a few individuals recognize the import of the moment. Sometimes, it slips by without anyone noticing. The importance emerges later, maybe days, weeks or even years later. Today is the anniversary of an important milestone and one that is not generally acknowledged. On this date in 1967, NASA launched Apollo 4, the first unmanned test flight of the Saturn V rocket. When we think about the Apollo Program, the Moonshot naturally comes first. The moment remains in the popular memory: grainy footage of Neil Armstrong descends the ladder of the Apollo 11 lander with his iconic first words overlaying the video: “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” In that moment the US won the Space Race against rival the Soviet Union and made history. Today we take it for granted that the US prevailed. Few remember that the moon landing was a “come from behind” victory. The US trailed from the moment the Soviets launched Sputnik I in 1957 until this date in 1967. That may sound odd, Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The US won the Space Race in 1969, but we took the lead permanently with the launch of Apollo 4, the unmanned first test launch of the Saturn V rocket which was the key getting to the Moon first.

In World War II, the Germans developed several technologically advanced weapons like the V-2, the world’s first ballistic missile, and the ME-262, the first operational jet fighter. While World War II still raged, US and USSR began recruiting German scientists and technicians as they focused on shaping the post-war world. By the time World War II ended, the Cold War had already informally begun. In 1944, before US or Soviet troops had entered Germany, OSS* operative Allen Dulles contacted the V-2’s designer Wernher von Braun and other prominent Germans. Von Braun came to the US in 1945 and began working on developing a missile program capable of delivering atomic weapons across the ocean. His real passion though was to travel to the Moon. He wrote futuristic visionary articles in several major US magazines and relentlessly campaigned for a moonshot throughout the 1950s.

In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite, generating panic amongst the American people initiating one of the biggest conflicts of the Cold War: the Space Race. Fortunately, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was not rattled. He made long term plans to establish dominance in space through funding math and science in schools and universities. He also founded the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and von Braun moved from the military missile program to NASA. Eisenhower ensured von Braun had the necessary resources to begin building a platform for launching satellites. Within three years, von Braun developed the Saturn I which fulfilled Eisenhower’s requirements.

The Soviets continued to lead the Space Race, most notably making Yuri Gagarin the first human to enter space and orbit the Earth in 1961. A year later, President John F. Kennedy redefined the Space Race in a speech at Rice University calling for the US to send a man to the Moon within a decade. If Cold War pressure was not enough, Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 made the moonshot a top American priority.

Needing a much more powerful rocket to escape Earth’s gravity, von Braun bundled five Saturn engines into one rocket he named the Saturn V. On this date in 1967, the Saturn V successfully launched as Apollo 4. The technological achievement was truly amazing. In less than a decade, the US designed, built and launched the 363 feet tall (63 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty) Saturn V as a three-stage rocket. Weighing 6.3 million lbs. the rocket was powerful enough to carry 50 tons into space while providing enough velocity to escape Earth’s gravity. 21 months after its first test flight, the Saturn V carried Apollo 11 on its historic journey to the Moon.

The Soviet response was typical for the Cold War. They downplayed the importance of the Moonshot claiming to fake interest to force the US to waste time and money on a frivolous undertaking. This was a lie of course. The Soviets were competing as hard as they could. In 1959, Soviet rocket guru Sergei Korolev began designing the N-1 to launch two cosmonauts to the Moon, The N-1 was comparable in size and more powerful than the Saturn V, but also more complicated. The first stage had 30 rockets arranged in two rings, 24 rockets on the outer ring, 6 in the inner ring. The Soviet rocket program was plagued though by personal rivalries, a lack of funds and design difficulties that slowed assembly of the N-1. To make matters worse, Leonid Brezhnev lead a move to oust Nikita Khrushchev as general secretary in 1964. The political uncertainty and upheaval stalled the Soviet space program as Brezhnev imposed a more repressive bureaucracy and top down management. Then Korolev died in 1966 further setting back the program.

The first N-1 launch did not occur until February 21, 1969, 16 months after Apollo 4. Several rockets malfunctioned causing a fatal chain reaction that resulted in the rocket flying off course less than 30 seconds from liftoff and crashing soon after. A second N-1 was launched on July 3, 1969, just days before the Apollo 11 launch. The second N-1 cleared the launch tower before a flash was observed and moments later a 7 kiloton explosion (one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in world history) destroyed both the rocket and the launch complex. The Soviets attempted two more N-1 launches in 1971 and 1972 that both ended in failure and ultimately cancelled the program in 1974.

At the end of the day, the Soviets lost the Space Race because of an inferior rocket design born of technical limitations, a lack of quality control and poor management and leadership. They had cut corners to get Sputnik and Gagarin into space first. For example, the Soviets could not refine rocket fuel as well which meant they needed more propellant and it burned less efficiently. Further, the Soviets were plagued by production limitations. The Soviets built spherical fuel tanks which were easier to manufacture but less efficient in draining fuel and could not be load bearing. The Saturn tanks which were cylindrical and could therefore help support the weight of the rocket improving the aerodynamics of the rocket. There were many such examples that differentiated the Saturn V from the N-1 and the shortcuts came back to haunt the Soviets.

The Cold War was as much about prestige as geopolitical advantage. Winning the Space Race was an important victory in the Cold War establishing the US as technologically superior and providing the US with one of the most significant achievements in human history. Neil Armstrong’s first step is generally considered the final step in the US victory in the Space Race, but the November 9, 1967 launch of Saturn V was the moment the US took the lead for the first time.

For a more full discussion of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and background on the Space Race and the Cold War, please see another article I wrote:

*The OSS was the predecessor of the CIA.

**** I have attached a portion of John F. Kennedy’s 1962 speech below. Kennedy was a great speaker and this excerpt is one of his finest moments. He eloquently identifies the challenges, the historic importance and links the two concepts with American exceptionalism in setting out an ambitious and worthwhile goal. It is a truly magnificent piece of American History.

https://jalopnik.com/this-insane-rocket-is-why-the-soviet-union-never-made-i-1448356326

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