Aelita project

{{Short description|1969 Soviet project of a crewed flight to Mars}}

Aelita was the 1969 abandoned Soviet project of a crewed flight to Mars. It was named after the 1923 science fiction novel Aelita by Russian author Aleksey Tolstoy about a flight to Mars.Brian Harvey, Russian Planetary Exploration. History, Development, Legacy and Prospects, 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8XC0WlTuujgC&dq=Soviet+project+aelita+mars&pg=PA302 p. 302]Mark Wade, [http://www.astronautix.com/m/mek.html MEK]Asif A. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo. The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974, 2000, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5pQ9AQAAMAAJ&dq=Soviet+project+aelita+mars&pg=RA13-PA19 Chapter 17: Dreams Unfulfilled]Zheleznyakov A., [http://www.cosmoworld.ru/spaceencyclopedia/programs/index.shtml?aelita.html «Аэлита», «МАВР» и другие проекты советской пилотируемой экспедиции на Марс.]Сергей Филиппенков, [http://www.cosmoworld.ru/spacehistory/projects/aelita.html "Проект 'Аэлита' "], "Жуковские вести", 11 August 1999