In 1968, which was the first manned lunar orbiting mission?
Zond 6 Zond 6 Zond 6, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched on a lunar flyby mission from a parent satellite (68-101B) in Earth parking orbit. The spacecraft, which carried scientific probes including cosmic ray and micrometeoroid detectors, photography equipment, and a biological payload, was a precursor to a manned circumlunar flight which the Soviets hoped could occur in December 1968, beating the American "Apollo 8". However, after orbiting the Moon Zond 6 crashed on its return to Earth due to a parachute failure. Zond 6 was the official
Manned Orbiting Laboratory Manned Orbiting Laboratory The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), originally referred to as the Manned Orbital Laboratory, was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane project. The project was developed from several early Air Force and NASA concepts of manned space stations to be used for reconnaissance purposes. MOL evolved into a single-use laboratory, with which crews would be launched on 40-day missions and return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft, derived from NASA's Project Gemini. The MOL program was announced to the public on