Roscosmos released secret documents from the lunar race between the USSR and the USA, dedicated to development and launch of the Lunokhod-1 mission. Materials are available on the website of the state corporation.
Among the published documents there is an order defining the Lavochkin Machine-Building Plant as the head organization for the development of scientific artificial earth satellites. In addition, documents on the state of work on object E-8 – an automatic interplanetary station (lunar rover) for exploring the Moon – have been declassified.
Also available is the verbatim protocol of the meeting of the board of the USSR Ministry of General Machine Building, during which the chief designer of the Scientific Research Institute of Automation and Instrumentation (NII AP) Mikhail Ryazansky expressed considerations about meeting the deadlines for work on the E-8 complex, which was associated with the Soviet cosmonaut landing program on the moon, for which the manned spacecraft L-3 was being developed. He said that the deadlines were violated due to the preparation of new equipment, which had not been previously developed.
In another document, the minutes of the meeting of the board of the Ministry of General Engineering of the USSR on May 8, 1969, it is noted that, if the Americans are to implement the Apollo program, the Soviet Union should retain priority in the exploration of the Moon. So, the chief designer of the Lavochkin Design Bureau, Georgy Babakin, said that the launch of the E-8 apparatus must be carried out in any case, even if the Americans send lunar soil to the USSR. The Minister of General Machine Building of the USSR Sergei Afanasyev noted that the launch of the station plays an extremely important role, and it would be a shame if “the collector starts collecting the lunar atmosphere instead of soil”.
On November 17, 1970, the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna-17 landed on the lunar surface in the region of the Sea of Rains, after which the Lunokhod-1 self-propelled vehicle left the landing platform and began carrying out its research program.