N-1: Soviet Manned Moon Rocket

The Proton-M rocket with 3rd stage lifts up 30 tons to the low earth orbit. The first stages of both Atlas III and Atlas V rockets have been based on the Russian RD-180 engines since 2002. Unfortunately, the modern «democratic» Russian lows allow to sale rocket techniques abroad, even to USA. So the Space Shuttle ships are useless even in the USA themselves.

Russian engines using closed-cycle are engineering marvels. Unfortunately the Proton uses a fuel with lower specific impulse.

I think the best heavy lift rocket today is the Delta IV, which uses entirely hydrogen/oxygen. It's engine is open cycle -- Boeing decided it was optimal to keep the price of the rocket lower by using a simple engine.

We have a Soviet era lunar rover in our museum. Actually, our museum has more Soviet era space flight articles than any other museum in the world. Your discussion about Russian space hardware is interesting,one truism though, the Sov's had a practical approach to all they built. I kinda like to think of our stuff as the gold lined cloud approach to getting into space, the Sov's more like the Mac truck get the fuck out of the way we are coming through approach. Robust is a good word!

Delta IV and Atlas V are unable to function. And Ariane is too expensive and unreliable.

Low Earth orbit payloads:

Proton - 20 tons
Delta IV heavy - 23 tons
Atlas V 552 - 20 tons
Atlas V HLV DEC - 25 tons

The Shuttle rocket has no decisive importance because the main ISS modules were delivered by the Russian Proton rocket which can carry 30 tons. The heavy cargo rocket Proton delivered the modules for all Russian orbit stations from SALUTE to MIR (150 tons) as well. And for transporting cosmonauts, the Soyuz rocket is the best. It can carry 7 tons and has a very reliable life-saving system. And the Shuttle has no secure system at all and therefore is not suitable for transporting cosmonauts.

The Zarya and Zvezda modules were put into orbit by the Russian Proton-K rocket. The other 8 modules of ISS were brought up on Space Shuttles. But they could have been launched with any heavy lift vehicle (Proton, Delta IV, Altas V, Ariane).

Hubble could have been put into orbit much more cheaply with Atlas, Delta or Titan rockets. Personally, I think manned missions like ISS are only of politcial value, not scientific.  I would rather see the money spent on scientific robotic missions -- rovers, orbiters, sample-return missions. The big science questions now are about the large moons of Jupiter and Saturn, not about low earth orbit.

From what I've read, is that the Soviet designers weren't really having problem with POGO, but in synchronizing all 30 engines in the first stage. This of course lead to resonant vibrations through out the booster's structure, ripping the rocket apart.

A shame it didn't make it to orbit, truly a most impressive machine.

The first stage of the N-1 was a disaster, but you gotta hand it to them; that was ambitious as hell.
If they had developed the RD-170 a few years earlier, they could have had cosmonauts on the moon also.