The original plan was for three N1 boosters to assemble a 200
tonne payload in low earth orbit. This would launch the original
L3 to a direct landing on the moon and return. By comparison,
Chelomei's UR-500 for the manned lunar flyby mission put only 20
tonnes in low orbit. However the leadership was only willing to
fund N1 production at the rate of four per year, and Korolev
concluded the only moon mission he could propose at such a rate
was the single-shot lunar orbit rendezvous scheme selected by
the Americans. It was commonly believed that the N1 was
inadequate for the one-shot moon mission proposed by Korolev,
and there was no time to develop enhancements to it to make it
suitable for such a mission. Kalmykov (Minister of the Radio-
Technical Industry) sent a letter to Military-Industrial
Commission Chairman Smirnov pointing this out. Feoktistov and
the other spacecraft designers knew the mass of the payload was
absolutely critical, with no margin for growth. But Mishin
wanted to go ahead with development