Zond and N1 Programmes
The Zond and N1 programmes — Soviet deep-space test probes and the Soviet race to fly cosmonauts around the Moon and land them on it, 1963–1972. "Zond" ("probe") named both early test craft and the uncrewed flights of the 7K-L1 ship; the N1 was the giant rocket built to launch the L3 landing expedition. Zond 5 was the first spacecraft to circle the Moon and come home; all four N1 launches failed, and no cosmonaut flew to the Moon.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- OKB-1 / TsKBEM (USSR)
- Launched
- November 11, 1963
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 0.304 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.338 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
"Zond" — Russian for "probe" — was a name the Soviet Union gave to several different things. It first named "Object-Probes", test craft of the 3MV Venus and Mars design, and then Zond 1, a failed Venus probe renamed to hide the failure. From 1968 it named the uncrewed flights of the 7K-L1, a ship built to carry two cosmonauts around the Moon. The circumlunar ship was launched on Proton rockets. Of its nine launches toward lunar distance, four failed on the way up, Zond 4 and Zond 6 were lost coming home, and Zond 5, 7 and 8 came back safely — Zond 5 as the first spacecraft ever to fly around the Moon and return. But Apollo 8 flew people around the Moon in December 1968, and no cosmonaut ever made the trip. The landing itself was to be launched by the N1, a rocket with 30 engines in its first stage. All four N1 launches, from 1969 to 1972, failed. The timeline lists every launch of both programmes, with its date and what happened.
- 1963Kosmos 21Launch
The first 3MV "Object-Probe", a deep-space test craft; stranded in Earth orbit. Had it left, it would probably have been called Zond 1.
- 19643MV-1A No.4A (Venera 1964A)Launch
A second Object-Probe, aimed toward Venus; its rocket's third stage exploded.
A Venus probe, named Zond to hide its failure; it passed Venus silent.
- 1964Zond 1964ALaunch
Tentatively a test of the Zond spacecraft; a faulty valve brought its rocket down 104 seconds after launch.
A Mars probe that fired electric thrusters, then fell silent before Mars.
Photographed the part of the Moon's far side Luna 3 had missed.
- 1967Kosmos 146Launch
The first test of the 7K-L1 circumlunar ship, sent into a high Earth orbit.
- 1967Kosmos 154Launch
A second 7K-L1 test; its upper stage failed to fire and it re-entered two days later.
- 19677K-L1 No.4L (Zond 1967A)Launch
The first attempt toward the Moon: the Proton veered off course; the escape system saved the capsule.
- 19677K-L1 No.5L (Zond 1967B)Launch
A second-stage engine failed to ignite; the capsule was recovered after a hard landing.
Sent into deep space away from the Moon; destroyed on its way home.
- 19687K-L1 No.7L (Zond 1968A)Launch
A false signal shut down the second stage; the capsule was recovered 520 km from the pad.
The first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and return to Earth.
Around the Moon, then lost when its capsule crashed on landing.
- 19697K-L1 No.13L (Zond 1969A)Launch
Second- and third-stage engines shut down early; the capsule landed near the Mongolian border.
- 1969N1 3L (Zond L1S-1)Launch
The first N1: a fire in the first stage shut every engine down at 70 seconds; the capsule escaped.
- 1969N1 5L (Zond L1S-2)Launch
The second N1 fell back onto its launch pad and exploded, destroying it; the capsule escaped.
The first fully successful Soviet flight around the Moon and back.
The last flight around the Moon, splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
- 1971N1 6LLaunch
The third N1, carrying mock-ups for a test in Earth orbit; it too failed.
The fourth and last N1, destroyed 107 seconds into flight.
Images
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