** The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 lunar probe.

The cruise bus of Venera 7 and 8 was similar to that of earlier ones, with the design ascending to the Zond 3 mission.

* Zond 8 – 20 October 1970 – Lunar flyby and return to Earth

Luna 17 continued the spate of successes in Soviet lunar exploration begun by Luna 16 and Zond 8.

** Zond 8

Then majority of tests flights from 1967 – 1970 ( Zond 4 to Zond 8 ) showed problems during re-entry.

Zond 8 flew past the Moon on October 24, 1970, at a distance of 1110. 4 km and obtained both black and white and color photographs of the lunar surface.

Zond 8 reentered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down 730 km SE of the Chagos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean on October 27, 1970, 24 km from the USSR recovery ship Taman.

This article was originally based on material from NASA ( NSSDC ) information on Zond 8

cs: Zond 8

fr: Zond 8

it: Zond 8

hu: Zond – 8

oc: Zond 8

pt: Zond 8

Zond 6, Zond 7 and Zond 8 made successful skip entries, although Zond 5 did not.

Following the dual American successes of the first manned lunar orbit on December 24-25, 1968 ( Apollo 8 ) and the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969 ( Apollo 11 ), and a series of catastrophic N1 failures, both Soviet programs were eventually brought to an end: the Proton / Zond program was canceled in 1970, and the N1 / L3 program was terminated de-facto in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976.

Planned for 8 December 1968 for priority over the US, a first manned mission of the L1 ( Zond ) was cancelled due to insufficient readiness of the capsule and rocket.

After Apollo 8 won the first ( lunar flyby ) phase of the Moon Race at the end of 1968, the Soviet leadership lost political interest in the L1 ( Zond ) program.

Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazhely Sputnik ( 68-076B ) in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth.

Zond 6, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched on a lunar flyby mission from a parent satellite ( 68-101B ) in Earth parking orbit.

Zond 7, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, the only truly successful test of L1, was launched towards the Moon from a mother spacecraft ( 69-067B ) on a mission of further studies of the Moon and circumlunar space, to obtain color photography of Earth and the Moon from varying distances, and to flight test the spacecraft systems.

Zond 4, a formal component of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned Moon-flyby spacecraft, was one of the first Soviet experiments towards manned circumlunar spaceflight.

Zond 3 was a member of the Soviet Zond program sharing designation Zond, while being part of Mars 3MV project.

Zond 1 was a member of the Soviet Zond program.

Zond 2, a member of the Soviet Zond program, was the fifth Soviet spacecraft to attempt a flyby of Mars.

* 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Pulsed plasma thrusters were the first electric thrusters to be deployed in space, used for attitude control on the Soviet probes Zond 2, from parking at Earth orbit to Mars on November 30, 1964, and Zond 3 in 1965.

Other Soviet manned spacecraft include the Voskhod, Soyuz, unflown as manned Zond / L1, L3, TKS, and the Salyut and Mir manned space stations.

In addition to the Mars program, the Soviet Union also sent a probe to Mars as part of the Zond program ; Zond 2, however it failed en route.

Zond ( Зонд ; Russian for " probe ") was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet unmanned space program undertaken from 1964 to 1970.

Zond 6 landed in an undetermined region of the Soviet Union.

Zond 6's parachutes also deployed too early and it crashed on Soviet soil.

* September 15 – 22-Zond program: Soviet spacecraft Zond 5 becomes the first vehicle to circle the Moon ( September 18 ) and return to splashdown on Earth.

In October 1965 the Soviet government ordered a compromise ; the circumlunar mission would be launched on Chelomei's UR-500 using Korolev's Soyuz spacecraft in place of their own Zond design, aiming for a launch in 1967, the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Although it failed to reach the Moon, the Soyuz went on to be repurposed from the centerpiece of the Zond lunar program to the people-carrier of the Salyut space station program, the Mir space station, and the International Space Station.

The existence of a giant far side basin was suspected as early as 1962 based on early probe images ( namely Luna 3 and Zond 3 ), but it was not until the acquisition of global photography by the Lunar Orbiter program in the mid-1960s that geologists recognized its true size.

Since the early beginnings of Luna programme it designed many space probes, among others of the Venera, Zond and Mars program.

* Zond program — USSR Lunar exploration ( 1964 – 1970 ).

* Zond program — failed USSR flyby probe

* Zond program — USSR flyby missions to the Moon, Venus, and Mars

Category: Zond program

Category: Zond program

Category: Zond program

Category: Zond program