Zond (Russian: Зонд, lit. 'probe') was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet robotic spacecraft launched between 1964 and 1970. The first series, based on the 3MV planetary probe, was intended to gather information about nearby planets.

The second series of test spacecraft was intended as a precursor to remote-controlled robotic circumlunar loop flights, using a stripped-down variant of Soyuz spacecraft, consisting of the service and descent modules, but lacking the orbital module.

Two tortoises and other lifeforms aboard Zond 5 were the first terrestrial organisms to travel around the Moon and return to Earth.

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, becoming the second spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon (after Luna 3). It then continued out to the orbit of Mars in order to test telemetry and spacecraft systems.

The missions Zond 4 through Zond 8 were test flights 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 kind of path flown by Apollo 13 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 similarly new Soyuz spacecraft, but the test flights pressed ahead with some glitches. The majority of test flights from 1967 to 1970 (Zond 4 to Zond 8) showed problems during re-entry.

The Zond spacecraft made only uncrewed 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 rays, magnetic fields, radio emissions, and solar wind. Many photographs were taken and biological payloads were also flown.

• Zond 1
  • Launched 2 April 1964
  • Communications lost 14 May 1964
  • Venus flyby 14 July 1964
• Zond 2
  • Launched 30 November 1964
  • Communications lost May 1965
  • Mars flyby 6 August 1965
• Zond 3
  • Launched 18 July 1965
  • Lunar Flyby 20 July 1965
  • Communications lost 3 March 1966

• Kosmos 146
  • Launched 10 March 1967
  • Prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton into planned highly elliptical Earth orbit.
• Kosmos 154
  • Launched 8 April 1967
  • Prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton and failed to go into a planned translunar trajectory.
• Zond 1967A
  • Launched 28 September 1967
  • Fell off course 60 seconds after launch. Escape tower took the Zond capsule safely away. The rocket crashed 65 km (40 mi) downrange.
  • Attempted Lunar flyby
• Zond 1967B
  • Launched 22 November 1967
  • Second stage failure. The Zond capsule was safely recovered. The rocket crashed 300 km (190 mi) downrange.
  • Attempted Lunar flyby
• Zond 4
  • 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 (6.2 to 9.3 mi) altitude, 180–200 km (110–120 mi) 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 the pad, killing three people.
• Zond 5
  • Launched 15 September 1968
  • Circumlunar 18 September 1968
  • Returned to Earth 21 September 1968
  • A biological payload of two Russian tortoises, wine flies, meal worms, plants, seeds, bacteria, and other living matter was included in the flight and were the first Earth lifeforms to travel around the Moon and return safely.
  • The first spacecraft to circle the Moon and return to land on Earth.
• Zond 6
  • Launched 10 November 1968
  • Circumlunar 14 November 1968
  • Returned to Earth 17 November 1968
• Zond 1969A
  • Launched 20 January 1969
  • Stage two shut down 25 seconds early. Automatic flight abort. The capsule was safely recovered.
  • Attempted Lunar flyby
• Zond L1S-1
  • Launched 21 February 1969
  • First stage failure. The capsule escape system fired 70 seconds after launch. The capsule was recovered.
  • Attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocket test
• Zond L1S-2
  • Launched 3 July 1969
  • First stage failure. The Zond capsule was recovered.
  • Attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocket test
• Zond 7
  • 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. Planned for July 1969, carrying a crew of Pavel Popovich and Vitali Sevastyanov, but never flew.
• Zond 10
  • Planned but cancelled

• 
  Circumlunar Zond spacecraft en route to the Moon. Artist's impression

• Zond failed missions
• List of missions to the Moon

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zond program.

• Very detailed information about the Soyuz 7K-L1 used in Zond 4-8
• Radios in Zond spacecraft
• Exploring the Moon: the Zond Missions

v t e Zond program
3MV based missions	Zond 1 Zond 2 Zond 3
Soyuz 7K-L1/L1S	Kosmos 146 Kosmos 154 Zond 1967A Zond 1967B Zond 4 Zond 1968A Zond 1968B Zond 5 Zond 6 Zond 1969A Zond-M 1 Zond-M 2 Zond 7 Zond 8 Zond 9 Zond 10
Other	Zond 3MV-1 No.2

v t e Soyuz programme
List of Soyuz missions List of Soviet human spaceflight missions List of Russian human spaceflight missions
Main topics	Soyuz (rocket family) Soyuz (spacecraft) Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 Site 31/6 Soyuz abort modes Cosmonaut ranks and positions
Past missions (by spacecraft type)	Soyuz 7K-OK (1966–1970) Kosmos 133† Soyuz 7K-OK No.1† (uncrewed) Kosmos 140 Soyuz 1† Kosmos 186 188 212 213 238 Soyuz 2 (uncrewed) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) (Zond lunar programme) Kosmos 146 154† Zond 1967A† 1967B† Zond 4 1968A† 1968B† 5 6 1969A† Zond-M 1† M 2† Zond 7 8 9 10 Soyuz 7K-L1E (1969–1970) Soyuz 7K-L1E No.1† Kosmos 382 Soyuz 7K-LOK (1971–1972) Soyuz 7K-LOK No.1† No.2† Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971) Soyuz 10† 11† Soyuz 7K-T (1972–1981) Kosmos 496 573 Soyuz 12 Kosmos 613 Soyuz 13 Kosmos 656 Soyuz 14 15† 17 18a† 18 20 (uncrewed) 21 23† 24 25† 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (uncrewed landing) 33† 34 (uncrewed launch) 35 36 37 38 39 40 Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976) Kosmos 638 672 Soyuz 16 19 (Apollo–Soyuz) 22 Soyuz 7K-S (1974–1976) Kosmos 670 772† 869† Soyuz-T (1978–1986) Kosmos 1001† 1074 Soyuz T-1 (uncrewed) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8† T-9 T-10a† T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15 Soyuz-TM (1986–2002) Soyuz TM-1 (uncrewed) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34 Soyuz-TMA (2002–2012) Soyuz TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22 Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2016) Soyuz TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M TMA-10M TMA-11M TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M TMA-20M Soyuz MS (2016–present) Soyuz MS-01 MS-02 MS-03 MS-04 MS-05 MS-06 MS-07 MS-08 MS-09 MS-10† MS-11 MS-12 MS-13 MS-14 (uncrewed test flight) MS-15 MS-16 MS-17 MS-18 MS-19 MS-20 MS-21 MS-22 (uncrewed landing) MS-23 (uncrewed launch) MS-24
Current missions	MS-25
Future missions	2024 MS-26
Uncrewed missions are designated as Kosmos instead of Soyuz; exceptions are noted "(uncrewed)". The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions.

v t e Soviet and Russian space program
Roscosmos
Launch sites	Baikonur Cosmodrome (in Kazakhstan) Dombarovsky Kapustin Yar Plesetsk Cosmodrome Svobodny Cosmodrome (defunct) Vostochny Cosmodrome
Launch vehicles	Angara Proton Soyuz
Human spaceflight programs	Past Vostok Voskhod Salyut Almaz (incorporated into Salyut program) / TKS Soyuz-Apollo (joint) Mir Shuttle–Mir (joint) Energia / Buran Cancelled Zond (7K-L1) (Moon flyby) Soviet crewed lunar programs (Moon landing) Zvezda (moonbase) TMK (Mars/Venus flyby) Spiral Zvezda Zarya MAKS Kliper Active International Space Station (joint) Russian Orbital Segment Soyuz In development Orel
Robotic programs	Past DS (1961–1982) Prognoz (1972–1996) Luna programme (1958–1976) Venera (1961–1985) Zond program (1964–1970) Astron (1983-1991) Vega program (1984-1987) Phobos program (failed) (1988-1989) Granat (1989-1998) Gamma (1990-1992) Mars 96 (failed) (1996) Resurs-DK No.1 (2006-2016) Koronas-Foton (2009) Fobos-Grunt (failed) (2011) Spektr-R (2011–2019) Luna 25 (failed) (2023) Active Bion-M Elektro–L ExoMars (joint) Meteor-M Resurs-P Spektr-RG In development Luna-Glob Luna 26 Luna 27 Luna 28 Kazachok Spektr-UV
Communications	Sputnik programme (begun 1957) Sputnik 1 Sputnik 2 Sputnik 3 Sputnik 41 Sputnik 99 Luch (satellite) Deep Space Network
Concepts	Baikal-Angara Laplace-P Mars-Grunt Mercury-P OPSEK Spektr-M Venera-D
Images and artwork	Mission patches
Related	List of cosmonauts Cosmonaut ranks and positions Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation Soviet space dogs Laika Belka and Strelka Veterok and Ugolyok Ivan Ivanovich Soviet space exploration history on Soviet stamps Cosmonauts Alley Monument to the Conquerors of Space Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics Out of the Present (1995 documentary) Mission to Mir (1997 documentary)
See also: Space industry of Russia Russian Aerospace Defence Forces

v t e Crewed lunar spacecraft
Orbiters	Apollo command and service module Cancelled LK-1 / LK-700 (VA) Zond (Soyuz 7K-L1) LOK (Soyuz 7K-L3) Future Lunar Gateway‎ Orion Orel Mengzhou
Landers	Apollo Lunar Module Canceled Lunniy Korabl Altair Future Blue Moon Lanyue Starship HLS
Proposed	Lunar Orbital Station Boeing Lunar Lander Lockheed Martin Lunar Lander
Related	Moon landing conspiracy theories List of lunar probes List of artificial objects on the Moon List of missions to the Moon

v t e Soviet crewed lunar programs
Launch vehicles and ascent/upper stages	N1 rocket Proton rocket Blok E Blok D
Spacecraft	LK-1 VA spacecraft LK-700 Zond (Soyuz 7K-L1) Zond-M (Soyuz 7K-L1S) Zond-LOK (Soyuz 7K-L1E) LOK (Soyuz 7K-L3) LK (spacecraft)
Other hardware	Lunokhod-LK Krechet-94
Soyuz docking tests	Soyuz 1, Soyuz 2A Soyuz 2, Soyuz 3 Soyuz 4, Soyuz 5 Soyuz 6, Soyuz 7, Soyuz 8 Soyuz Kontakt 1, 2
Zond (7K-L1/L1S) lunar flyby missions	Kosmos 146 Kosmos 154† Zond 1967A† Zond 1967B† Zond 4 Zond 1968A† Zond 1968B† Zond 5 Zond 6 Zond 1969A† Zond-M 1 (L1S-1) Zond-M 2 (L1S-2)† Zond 7 Zond 8 Zond 9 Zond 10 Kosmos 382
LOK (7K-LOK/L1E) test missions	Zond-LOK 1† LOK 1† LOK 2
LK Lander (T2K) test missions	Kosmos 379 Kosmos 398 Kosmos 434 LK-1
The † sign designates failed missions. Italics designates cancelled missions.

v t e Soviet space probes
Earth satellites	Kosmos Molniya Zenit Bion GLONASS Meteor
Space observatories	Orion Astron Granat Prognoz RELIKT-1
Moon exploration	Luna (Lunokhod rovers) Zond program
Venus	Venera Vega
Mars	Mars Fobos
Design family	1MV 2MV 3MV 2M/M69 4MV 5VK