[FPSPACE] Zond 8

[David Anderman]

Mr. Portree:

Zond may have failed in its goal of beating Apollo to the Moon with 
cosmonauts, but on the other hand, it succeeded in being the first 
spacecraft to travel to the Moon and return. Moreover, Zond was no more of 
a program failure than Mercury would have been had NASA cancelled Mercury 
after Vostok 1. If you compare the Mercury test program up to the Shepard 
flight with the Zond program through Zond 8, there wasn't that much 
disparity in the program *trend*.  The perceived difference is largely a 
result that NASA decided to press on after they were beaten to orbit. But 
to call Zond a failure because it lost to Apollo in reaching the Moon with 
a cosmonaut first would require that Mercury likewise be called a failure.

DWA


At 08:02 AM 8/14/2005, DSFPortree at aol.com wrote:
>Geert:
>
>Maybe some of these outstanding questions re: Zond and the LOK will be
>answered as the new Russian circumlunar bid unfolds. As with other failed 
>Soviet
>space programs, there are many questions we'd still like to have answered,
>official explanations that seem a bit shaky and don't quite ring true, 
>etc., etc.
>
>David
>
>David S. F. Portree
>Science writer & historian
>dsfportree at aol.com
>Flagstaff Arizona USA
>
>DSFP homepage
>http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/dsfp.htm
>
>Romance to Reality: moon & Mars plans
>http://rtr.marsinstitute.info
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