This 7K-L1 spacecraft is not intended to fly over the Moon, but to a theoretical point in Space located 330,000km from the Earth. The Zond-4 spacecraft effectively approaches the Earth's atmosphere at the scheduled time, and approaches the re-entry corridor with an accuracy of 2km, less than the required ± 10km.

However, following the failure of the Descent Control System (SUS), the ship does not follow its nominal trajectory with rebound, but falls along the emergency ballistic trajectory. The deceleration experienced by Zond-4 reaches a maximum of 20g. As the ship heads to an area outside the Soviet territory, its APO self-destruct system is activated, and the ship explodes over the Gulf of Guinea, about 150km from the African coast, at an altitude of about 15km

L1 was a Soviet spacecraft launched on Proton, designed in parallel of 7K-L1, which flew on the N-1 launcher. It was conceived to carry out crewed flybys of the Moon, like Apollo 8. This spacecraft sent the first living beings to fly over the Moon, turtles, on board Zond 5. The work made on this spacecraft will be used for the improvement of the Soyuz spacecraft.