What if Zond had successfully send a Cosmonaut on a Lunar Flyby before Apollo 8?

[fredinno]

What if Zond had successfully send a Cosmonaut on a Lunar Flyby before Apollo 8? I mean, I think it would have had to have been more successful, but how much would this have changed history?

[Sampa]

Probably not much. A flyby is just that, you go by it and you're done. Apollo8 would have flown and we'd orbit the moon.

[regex]

Not much, I imagine; the Soviet's Moon landing gambit ultimately failed because ~too much plumbing. The Soviets may have launched a few more Zonds had they beaten the Americans to that milestone, though.

[Gaarst]

Not much (again). Even if the Soviets managed to put cosmonauts on a flyby by 1968, they wouldn't have gone much further. The N1 was already doomed by that time, while the Saturn V had already been successfully launched twice (Apollo 4 and 6, add 8 by December 1968).

[Kibble]

If it was successful, they probably would have flown several more piloted Zond missions around the Moon. It may have boosted their confidence and the public and government opinion enough to try maybe a couple more times to launch N1. If they tried enough times, it would eventually work!

[fredinno]

If it was successful, they probably would have flown several more piloted Zond missions around the Moon. It may have boosted their confidence and the public and government opinion enough to try maybe a couple more times to launch N1. If they tried enough times, it would eventually work!

You can eventually make a brick fly.

[wizzlebippi]

What ultimately beat the Russians was the N1 crashing shortly after liftoff and destroying a sizable chunk of Baikonur in 1966. Even if they had completed a lunar flyby, there was nothing to follow it for years.

[Gaarst]

What ultimately beat the Russians was the N1 crashing shortly after liftoff and destroying a sizable chunk of Baikonur in 1966. Even if they had completed a lunar flyby, there was nothing to follow it for years.

The N1 which destroyed the pad it was launched from was the second one, launched the 3 July 1969. About 2 weeks before Apollo 11 landed humans on the Moon. So even if the launchpad wasn't destroyed, the Soviets had pretty much lost the race.

They still launched 2 N1 after that (in 1971 and 1972), but they were test rockets, with a fifth one planned for 1974: the designed was flawed since the beginning, and this way before launching anything so I doubt it would have made any difference.

Also, the Americans used the Saturn V to put 3 astronauts in orbit around the Moon only a few months after the Soviets were supposed to do an unmanned flyby of the Moon with a rocket which had nothing to do with their lunar rocket. So even if it succeeded it would have made really no difference.

[Bill Phil]

It would hasten the American program. That's about all.

[xenomorph555]

As others have said, not much. It would have been cool and made the race more intense at the time but in reality it would just be some side missions unrelated to the main program. Of course we most likely would have gotten some late night documentary's about it which I would be happy about

Oh also Alexie Leonov would be even more of a badass, which is difficult since he's already lv99 epic!