The super heavy Rocket N1 was created to launch Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon, Mars and Venus, and to place huge space stations onto the orbit. It was the Soviet counterpart of the American Saturn-V. The rocket N1 was a titanic feat of engineering consisting of 5 stages with a total height of 105 meters (345 feet) and weighing a massive 2788 metric tons (6.1 million lb). Its first stage (block A) involved a cluster of 30 high powered NK-15 rocket engines using kerosene and liquid oxygen as fuel. The second stage (block B) had a further 8 NK-15V engines arranged in a single ring.