Completed · Success
A Soviet circumlunar flight that photographed the Moon and Earth and returned its capsule to Soviet territory.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages
- Launch site
- Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
- Countries
- Soviet Union
- Mission types
- Flyby
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Zond 7 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome
Milestone
Zond 7 photographed the Earth
The original TASS photography report explicitly dates the first session to8August; the current NSSDCA summary says9August. The original date is retained here.
EarthFlyby
Zond 7 flew past the Moon; closest distance disputed
NSSDCA gives1984.6km, while the later NASA history and Keldysh account give1200km. The original photographic report establishes approximately2000km altitude during a photographic session, which need not equal closest approach.
MoonMilestone
Second photography session began
Milestone
Earth setting behind lunar limb
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Trajectory record
Trajectory dataset not yet available
Known dates and encounters do not uniquely determine a flight path. This mission’s sourced timeline is available above; no verified trajectory is currently published here.
What is needed to reconstruct this path?
- A frame-qualified position and vector velocity at an epoch, or equivalent complete orbital elements.
- Approach/departure directions and burn vectors between the reported encounters; body names and encounter distances alone are insufficient.
- Separate state histories and release epochs for the listed vehicles; a parent mission trajectory cannot be assigned to every component.
- Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- Zond 7 - NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- NASA current Zond 7 mission and hardware record — NSSDCATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Siddiqi (2018): Beyond Earth, a chronicle of deep space exploration 1958–2016 — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Johnson (1995): The Soviet Reach for the Moon, L1 and L3 hardware — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Arnold (2013): Planetary Entry Probes, Zond schematic — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Zond7 Earth and Moon photographs, NASA translation (1969) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- NSSDC (1977): Lunar and planetary data catalog, Zond photographs and indexes — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958–2000, NASA/SP-2002-4524 — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context