Zond 5

While the crew of Apollo 8 were the first human beings to reach the moon and return, two Soviet turtles were the first Earth creatures to accomplish the feat. They were launch aboard Zond 5 on September 14, 1968 and splashed down on September 21st. Zond 5 was a test flight in support of the Soviet objective of completing a circumlunar flight with a crew of two cosmonauts. The Zond spacecraft (7K-L1) was basically a stripped down version of the Soyuz 7K-OK, removing the forward living compartment. The Zond program was the second step of the Soviet moonshot. The first, testing the Soyuz, would develop spaceflight techniques they'd need for the moon, among other goals. Then the Zond program would make a circumlunar flight, then finally the landing with the N1-L3 complex. Ultimately, the crewed mission never flew, but further Zond missions circled the moon. Interestingly, the Zonds did not use the N1 rocket, but rather the UR-500, which is still in use today, in a much modernized form and called the Proton.