The Soviet LK would have made a steep descent (20 degrees), from 16 km to 110 m above the Moon, then the cosmonaut would have taken control. He would have had only 3 seconds to find a site or abort. The 11D411 hydrazine engine was designed by Mickhail Yangel of OKB-586 (who died suddenly at the age of 60 during his birthday party). It was used for both descent and ascent (the LM had two separate engines). It carried only one cosmonaut and very little scientific instrumentation. It would have been on the Moon for a maximum of 48 hours. The first LK was launched on November 24, 1970 (Cosmos 379), completed all the maneuvers, and was left in high Earth orbit. It burned up in the atmosphere in September 1983. Two more orbital tests were carried out, bringing it to full maturity, like the American LM.
