* Astronomy

Today is the 45th Anniversary of the Zond 3 spacecraft launch.

Zond 3, a member of the Soviet  Zond program, was the first Zond spacecraft to successfully complete its mission (a Lunar flyby) and took a number of amazing photographs for its time. It is believed that Zond 3 was initially designed as a companion spacecraft to Zond 2 to be launched to Mars during the 1964 launch window. The opportunity to launch was missed, and the spacecraft was launched on a Mars trajectory as a spacecraft test, even though Mars was no longer attainable.
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