Zond program
Encyclopedia
Zond was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet
unmanned space program
undertaken from 1964 to 1970. The first series based on 3MV planetary probe
was intended to gather information about nearby planets. The second series of test spacecraft being a precursor to manned circumlunar loop flights used a stripped-down variant of Soyuz spacecraft
, consisting of the service and descent modules, but lacking the orbital module.
The first three missions were based on the model 3MV planetary probe
, intended to explore Venus
and Mars
. After two failures, Zond 3
was sent on a test mission, photographing the far side of the Moon (only the second spacecraft to do so) and continuing out to the orbit of Mars in order to test telemetry and spacecraft systems.
The missions 4
through 8 were test flights under for the Soviet Moonshot
during the Moon race. The Soyuz 7K-L1
(also mentioned just as L1) spacecraft was used for the moon-aimed missions, stripped down to make it possible to launch around the moon from the Earth. They were launched on the Proton rocket
which was just powerful enough to send the Zond on a free-return trajectory around the moon without going into lunar orbit (the same path that Apollo 13
flew in its emergency abort). With minor modification, Zond was capable of carrying two cosmonauts.
In the beginning there were serious reliability problems with both the new Proton rocket and the similar new Soyuz spacecraft, but the test flights pressed ahead with some glitches. Then majority of tests flights from 1967–1970 (Zond 4
to Zond 8) showed problems during re-entry.
Zond spacecraft made only unmanned automatic flights. Four of these suffered malfunctions that would have injured or killed any crew. Instrumentation flown on these missions gathered data on micrometeor flux, solar and cosmic ray
s, magnetic field
s, radio emissions, and solar wind
. Many photographs were taken and biological payloads were also flown.
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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
unmanned space program
Robotic spacecraft
A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to...
undertaken from 1964 to 1970. The first series based on 3MV planetary probe
3MV planetary probe
The 3MV planetary probe is a designation for a common design used by early Soviet unmanned probes to Mars and Venus. It was an incremental improvement of earlier 2MV probes and was used for Zond 1, Zond 1964A, Zond 2 and Zond 3 missions to Mars as well as several Venera probes...
was intended to gather information about nearby planets. The second series of test spacecraft being a precursor to manned circumlunar loop flights used a stripped-down variant of Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...
, consisting of the service and descent modules, but lacking the orbital module.
Missions based on the 3MV planetary probe
The first three missions were based on the model 3MV planetary probe
3MV planetary probe
The 3MV planetary probe is a designation for a common design used by early Soviet unmanned probes to Mars and Venus. It was an incremental improvement of earlier 2MV probes and was used for Zond 1, Zond 1964A, Zond 2 and Zond 3 missions to Mars as well as several Venera probes...
, intended to explore Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
and Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. After two failures, Zond 3
Zond 3
Zond 3 was a member of the Soviet Zond program sharing designation Zond, while being part of Mars 3MV project. It was unrelated to Zond spacecraft designed for manned circumlunar mission . Zond 3 completed a successful Lunar flyby, taking a number of good quality photographs for its time...
was sent on a test mission, photographing the far side of the Moon (only the second spacecraft to do so) and continuing out to the orbit of Mars in order to test telemetry and spacecraft systems.
Circumlunar missions
The missions 4
Zond 4
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. It was launched to test the spaceworthiness of the new capsule and to gather data about flights in...
through 8 were test flights under for the Soviet Moonshot
Soviet Moonshot
The Soviet manned lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land a man on the Moon in competition with the United States Apollo program to achieve the same goal set publicly by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961...
during the Moon race. The Soyuz 7K-L1
Soyuz 7K-L1
The Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft was designed to launch men from the Earth to circle the Moon without going into lunar orbit in the context of the Soviet manned moon-flyby program in Moon race. It was based on the Soyuz 7K-OK with several components stripped out to reduce the vehicle weight...
(also mentioned just as L1) spacecraft was used for the moon-aimed missions, stripped down to make it possible to launch around the moon from the Earth. They were launched on the Proton rocket
Proton rocket
Proton is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965 and the launch system is still in use as of 2011, which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight...
which was just powerful enough to send the Zond on a free-return trajectory around the moon without going into lunar orbit (the same path that Apollo 13
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
flew in its emergency abort). With minor modification, Zond was capable of carrying two cosmonauts.
In the beginning there were serious reliability problems with both the new Proton rocket and the similar new Soyuz spacecraft, but the test flights pressed ahead with some glitches. Then majority of tests flights from 1967–1970 (Zond 4
Zond 4
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. It was launched to test the spaceworthiness of the new capsule and to gather data about flights in...
to Zond 8) showed problems during re-entry.
Zond spacecraft made only unmanned automatic flights. Four of these suffered malfunctions that would have injured or killed any crew. Instrumentation flown on these missions gathered data on micrometeor flux, solar and cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s, magnetic field
Magnetic field
A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
s, radio emissions, and solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
. Many photographs were taken and biological payloads were also flown.
3MV planetary probe based missions
- Zond 1Zond 1Zond 1 was a member of the Soviet Zond program. It was the second Soviet research spacecraft to successfully reach Venus, although communications had failed by that time...
- Launched 2 April 1964
- Communications lost 14 May 1964
- Venus flyby 14 July 1964
- Zond 2Zond 2Zond 2, a member of the Soviet Zond program, was the fifth Soviet spacecraft to attempt a flyby of Mars. Zond-2 carried a phototelevision camera of the same type later used to photograph the Moon on Zond 3. The camera system also included two ultraviolet spectrometers...
- Launched 30 November 1964
- Communications lost May 1965
- Mars flyby 6 August 1965
- Zond 3Zond 3Zond 3 was a member of the Soviet Zond program sharing designation Zond, while being part of Mars 3MV project. It was unrelated to Zond spacecraft designed for manned circumlunar mission . Zond 3 completed a successful Lunar flyby, taking a number of good quality photographs for its time...
- Launched 18 July 1965
- Lunar Flyby 20 July 1965
Soyuz 7K-L1 test missions
- Cosmos 146
- Launched 10 March 1967
- Prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton into planned highly elliptical earth orbit.
- Cosmos 154
- Launched 8 April 1967
- Prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton and failed into planned translunar trajectory.
- Zond 1967AZond 1967ASoyuz 7K-L1 No.4L, sometimes identified by NASA as Zond 1967A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was launched in 1967 as part of the Zond programme. It was a Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft, the first of nine to be launched...
- Launched 28 September 1967
- Fell off course 60 seconds after launched. Escape tower took Zond capsule safely away. Rocket crashed 65 km downrange.
- Attempted Lunar flyby
- Zond 1967BZond 1967BSoyuz 7K-L1 No.5L, sometimes identified by NASA as Zond 1967B, was a Soviet spacecraft which was launched in 1967 as part of the Zond programme. It was a Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft, the second of nine to be launched...
- Launched 22 November 1967
- Second stage failure. Zond capsule was safely recovered. Rocket crashed 300 km downrange.
- Attempted Lunar flyby
- Zond 4Zond 4Zond 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. It was launched to test the spaceworthiness of the new capsule and to gather data about flights in...
- Launched 2 March 1968
- Study of remote regions of circumterrestrial space, development of new on-board systems and units of space stations.
- Returned to Earth 7 March 1968—Self destruct system automatically blew up the capsule at 10 to 15 km altitude, 180–200 km off the African coast at Guinea.
- Zond 1968A
- Launched 23 April 1968
- Second stage failed 260 seconds after launch.
- Attempted Lunar flyby
- Zond 1968B (Zond 7K-L1 s/n 8L)
- Launched 21 July 1968
- Block D stage exploded on pad, killing three people.
- Zond 5Zond 5Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth....
- Launched 15 September 1968
- Circumlunar 18 September 1968
- Returned to Earth 21 September 1968
- Turtles and other biological specimens were the first lifeforms to travel around the moon and return safely.
- Zond 6Zond 6Zond 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 in Earth parking orbit...
- Launched 10 November 1968
- Circumlunar 14 November 1968
- Returned to Earth 17 November 1968
- Zond 1969A
- Launched 20 January 1969
- Stage two shutdown 25 seconds early. Automatic flight abort. Capsule was safely recovered.
- Attempted Lunar flyby
- Zond L1S-1
- Launched 21 February 1969
- First stage failure. Capsule escape system fired 70 seconds after launch. Capsule was recovered.
- Attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocketN1 rocketN-1 was a heavy lift rocket intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit, acting as the Soviet counterpart to the NASA Saturn V rocket. This heavy lift booster had the capability of lifting very heavy loads into orbit, designed with manned extra-orbital travel in mind...
test
- Zond L1S-2
- Launched 3 July 1969
- First stage failure. Zond capsule was recovered.
- Attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocketN1 rocketN-1 was a heavy lift rocket intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit, acting as the Soviet counterpart to the NASA Saturn V rocket. This heavy lift booster had the capability of lifting very heavy loads into orbit, designed with manned extra-orbital travel in mind...
test
- Zond 7Zond 7This article was originally based on material from ...
- Launched 7 August 1969
- Lunar flyby 11 August 1969
- Returned to Earth 14 August 1969
- Zond 8
- Launched 20 October 1970
- Lunar flyby 24 October 1970
- Returned to Earth 27 October 1970
- Zond 9
- Planned but cancelled
- Zond 10
- Planned but cancelled
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