Zond 8, also known as L-1 No.14, was the last in the series of circumlunar spacecraft, a member of the Soviet Zond program, designed to rehearse a piloted circumlunar flight, an uncrewed version of Soyuz 7K-L1 crewed circumlunar flight spacecraft. The project was initiated in 1965 to compete with the Americans in the race to the Moon but lost its importance once three astronauts orbited the Moon on the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968.

Mission

Zond 8 was launched on 20 October 1970, at 19:55:39 GMT by a Proton-K / Blok D launcher from Site 81/23 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, towards the Moon. Zond 8 had a mass of .

The spacecraft obtained photographs of Earth on 21 October from a distance of . After a mid-course correction on 22 October 1970 at a distance of from Earth, the spacecraft transmitted flight images of Earth for three days. Zond 8 reached the Moon without any apparent problems, circling its target on 24 October at a range of and took both black-and-white and color photographs of the lunar surface during two separate sessions. The minimum distance from the Moon during the mission was 1,120 kilometres (696 miles) from the lunar surface. Scientific measurements were also obtained during the flight.

Zond 10

Zond 10, Soyuz 7K-L1 s/n 15, was planned but cancelled.

See also

  • Splashdown (spacecraft landing)
  • Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes

References

  • Soviet Lunar Images
  • Astronautix.com - detailed on Soyuz 7K-L1 (Zond) program
  • Zond 8 Earthset photo and animation on the Bruce Murray Space Image Library