AntarikshPedia
Zond 5

1957–1969: Opening the Space Age

Zond 5

First living organisms to travel around the Moon and return to Earth.

Era 1 of 6 · full record in the catalog

Launch
14 Sep 1968
Lead / partner
Soviet Union
Target
Moon
Category
Lunar circumlunar / space biology
Status
Success
Vehicle
Proton-K
Mass
unknown
Orbit / trajectory
Geocentric
Duration
6 days, 18 hours, 24 minutes

Why it happened

Zond 5 flew during 1957–1969: Opening the Space Age, as part of Soviet Union's work toward moon. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.

The mission

The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First living organisms to travel around the Moon and return to Earth.

Results

First living organisms to travel around the Moon and return to Earth.

Related missions

Zond 5 Apollo 8 — same_target Apollo 8 Lunar Orbiter 5 — same_target Lunar Orbiter… Apollo 11 — same_target Apollo 11 Luna 10 — same_target Luna 10

Sources & image credits

  • USSR Post, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-24)
  • Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
  • Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog