00:00 On this day in space.
00:03 In 1968, the Soviet Union launched the Zond 5 spacecraft on a mission to loop around the moon and return to Earth.
00:09 There were no cosmonauts aboard Zond 5, but there were several smaller life forms, including the first two tortoises to ever go to space.
00:16 Other passengers included wine flies, mealworms, plants, and seeds.
00:21 These were the first animals in deep space and the first to travel to the moon.
00:25 After looping around the moon, the Zond 5 spacecraft turned around and came back to Earth.
00:29 It was supposed to land in Kazakhstan on September 22, but the spacecraft's guidance system failed and it splashed down in the Indian Ocean instead.
00:37 The Soviets did recover the capsule and found that the tortoises and other critters were still alive, although they had lost some weight since the start of the mission.
00:44 And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:47 [ ♪ ]
