Originally posted by GScholz
Did the original fly at all?
The original flew.
Briefly.
Both launches ended up exploding, one of them on the pad (it destroyed the tower, launch pad, etc. Early surveillance photos of the aftermath suspected an atomic explosion).
Many space historians believe that the Soviet Union's decision not to build mounts to test fire the stages seperately on the ground significantly contributed to the problems, from a project management perspective.
Technically, what most likely happened was that the extremely complicated plumbing (look at how many engines the real one had versus the Saturn V) meant that a failure in one line could shrapnelize surrounding rockets. The KORD engine management system that the N1 used was a lowtech, but theoretically adequate crisis control system. If an engine at one side of the rocket failed, it would shut down the corresponding engine on the other side to prevent uneven thrust, and theoretically there was enough power in the remaining engines to allow a succesful launch regardless.
In reality, KORD appeared to shut down too many engines, leading many to suspect that some type of catastrophic failure occured in the engine bay, taking out a whole bank of turbopumps or plumbing. End result, rocket lifts off, hovers, then falls backwards into the tower.
