Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
21:42:10
Saturday September 14, 1968
First living being to fly over the Moon. An issue with the stellar trackers caused the spacecraft to splash down in the Indian Ocean instead of landing in Kazakhstan, despite this it was recovered intact, and the animals onboard survived.
Zond-5 carried two 40-gram Horsfield tortoises each, as well as several hundred flies, Drosophilidae flies, sucker blackberries (a beetle), salads, algae and bacteria. The specimen survived the reentry. Zond-5 became the first spacecraft to circle the Moon and return to Earth. 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.
Trans Lunar Injection
1 Payload
5,375 kilograms
Manufacturer
KhrunichevRocket
Height: 56.14m
Payload to Orbit
LEO: 18,900 kg
GTO: 9,000 kg
Liftoff Thrust
8,840 Kilonewtons
Fairing
Diameter: 3.9m
Height: 8.9m
Stages
4
7th
Mission
3rd
Mission of 1968
347th
Mission
54th
Mission of 1968
83rd
Orbital launch attempt