... Launch Date: 1970-10-20 . ... Zond 8 was launched from an Earth orbiting platform, Tyazheliy Sputnik, towards the Moon. ... The spacecraft obtained photographs of the Earth on October 21 from a distance of 64,480 kilometers (40,070 miles). The spacecraft transmitted flight images of the earth for three days. Zond 8 flew past the Moon on October 24, 1970, at a distance of 1,110.4 kilometers (690 miles) and obtained both black and white and color photographs of the lunar surface. ...