{"id":23239,"date":"2020-10-21T17:07:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T09:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/this-day-in-space-october-20-1970-the-soviet-union-launches-the-zond-8-spacecraft\/"},"modified":"2020-10-21T17:07:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T09:07:04","slug":"this-day-in-space-october-20-1970-the-soviet-union-launches-the-zond-8-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/this-day-in-space-october-20-1970-the-soviet-union-launches-the-zond-8-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"This Day In Space (October 20, 1970): The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Soviet Union\u2019s \u201cZond\u201d program, which means \u201cprobe\u201d in Russian, consisted of 17 spacecraft, the last of which launched on this day back in 1970. It was called Zond 8, and it marked the end of the Zond program despite two more Zond spacecraft having been planned to launch after it.<\/p>\n

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Zond 8, an uncrewed spacecraft, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome headed towards the Earth\u2019s moon. Its mission objectives were to take photos of the moon and test onboard systems that cosmonauts would hopefully use in the future.<\/p>\n

The mission with Zond 8 was mostly successful, but there were a couple of issues along the way. The first of these issues arose while Zond 8 was on its way to the moon. A mid-course correction had to be made while the spacecraft was about 160,000 miles from Earth. Then on the return leg, the guidance system onboard the craft failed, causing Zond 8 to fall to Earth instead of being guided. Despite these issues, Zond 8 landed safely in the Indian Ocean on October 27, 1970.<\/p>\n

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