Zond 7

The Zond 7 spacecraft, part of the Soviet Zond program, was launched towards the Moon on a Proton-K D rocket on August 7, 1969. Its mission was to support studies of the Moon and circunlunar space, to obtain color photography of Earth and the Moon from varying distances, and to flight test the spacecraft systems. It was an unpiloted version of the Soyuz 7K-L1, a crewed Moon-flyby spacecraft.

Earth photos were obtained on August 9, 1969. On August 11, 1969, the spacecraft flew past the Moon at a distance of 1984.6 km and conducted two picture taking sessions. On its way back from the Moon the spacecraft tested its radio systems by transmitting recorded voices.

Zond 7 carried four turtles, a follow-up to the September 1968 Zond 5 mission which carried two tortoises on a circumlunar lunar mission, and the November 1968 Zond 6 mission which also carried turtles.

A human-like tissue-equivalent phantom for radiation measurements was placed aboard. The phantom was equipped with 20 channels for radiation detectors (thermoluminescent glasses and nuclear photoemulsions) distributed along the whole body for measurement of doses in critical organs. The doses accumulated during the flight through the radiation belts and around the Moon were between 0.2 and 0.7 rad in different points at the depth of 3 g/cm2 from the body surface.

Like other Zond circumlunar craft, Zond 7 used a relatively uncommon technique called skip reentry to shed velocity upon returning to Earth. Of all circumlunar Soviet Zond craft launches, Zond 7 would have been the first to make a safe flight for a cosmonaut had it been crewed.

Zond 7 reentered Earth's atmosphere on August 14, 1969, and achieved a soft landing in a preset region south of Kustanai, Kazakhstan. The return capsule is on display at the Dmitrov Facility of Bauman University in Orevo, Russia.