 A drawing of Zond 8 spacecraft. | |
| Mission type | Spacecraft test |
|---|---|
| Operator | TsKBEM |
| COSPAR ID | 1970-088A |
| SATCAT no. | 04591 |
| Mission duration | 7 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Soyuz 7K-L1 s/n 14 |
| Spacecraft type | Uncrewed version |
| Bus | Soyuz 7K-L1 |
| Manufacturer | OKB-1 |
| Launch mass | 5,375 kg [1] |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 20 October 1970 19:55:39 UTC [1] |
| Rocket | Proton-K / Blok D |
| Launch site | Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 81/23 |
| Contractor | OKB-1 |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | Soviet recovery vessel Taman |
| Recovery date | 27 October 1970 (Indian Ocean) |
| Landing date | 27 October 1970, 13:55 GMT [1] |
| Landing site | Chagos Archipelago (730 km at SE) [2] |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Circumlunar |
| Flyby of Moon | |
| Closest approach | 24 October 1970 |
| Distance | 1110 km |
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.
- ^ a b c Siddiqi, Asif (2018). Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 (PDF) (second ed.). NASA History Program Office.
- ^ "Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration" (PDF). p. 314.