Goals: This was the last of the Soviet efforts to fly around the Moon and back to Earth in preparation for sending cosmonauts to the Moon.

Accomplishments: Zond 8 successfully looped around the Moon and returned to Earth. It took high-quality photos of Earth and the Moon and conducted measurements of the lunar environment. Though its guidance system evidently malfunctioned during the return flight, it splashed down safely in the Indian Ocean 24 km from its original target.