Zond
program
The
Zond program was a series of
Soviet
unmanned
space missions sent to the
Moon
from
1964 to
1979.
While the Zond program is considered here as a lunar program, it should be noted
that Zond 1 was sent in the direction of
Venus
and Zond 2 in the direction of
Mars.
The later Zond missions (4-8) were tests for manned lunar missions in addition
to their usual missions of collecting information about the Moon. Instrumentation
flown on these missions gathered data on
micrometeor
flux, solar and
cosmic
rays, magnetic fields, radio emissions, and
solar
wind. Biological payloads were also flown and many photographs were taken.
