Zond 5 Returns from Moon

Date: September 21, 1968 • Location: Zond 5, International

The Soviet Union's Zond 5 landed in the Indian Ocean, becoming the first spacecraft to safely return to Earth after travelling around the Moon.

Zond 5 was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program. In September 1968 Zond 5 travelled around the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory and became the first Moon mission to include animals and the first to return safely to Earth. The first terrestrial organisms to fly to the vicinity of the Moon, and beyond low Earth orbit, included two Russian tortoises, fruit fly eggs, and plants.