Lever from one compartment of the Soyuz 7K-L1 moon flyby spacecraft living module. Component measures approximately 7.5 x 12 x 9 and is dominated by the large green hand lever, numbered in red paint “33A.” Component is attached to a vertical display stand with a descriptive plaque affixed to the base. The ‘Zond’ spacecraft was designed to launch men from the Earth to circle the Moon and return without going into lunar orbit. The first manned flight of the L1 spacecraft was planned for late 1968 or early 1969 with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Bykovsky. However, only unmanned flights were made, with four of the five test flights resulting in catastrophic malfunctions. After the successful Apollo 8 flight around Moon, the Soviet manned moon flyby missions lost political motivation and the program was closed in 1970 without the achievement of its primary goal. RR Auction COA.
