Slitherine

Currently, the Zond 5 is pretty useless as far as the moon race goes. I suggest that completing the Zond 5 mission successfully, should also count as completing the 7K-LOK "Unmanned Lunar flyby test" goal.

The Zond 5 is basiclaly a soyuz turned into a probe. IMHO this pretty much fills out the "Unmanned Lunar flyby test" part. This would have the advantage of giving the player an in-game tactical choice during the moon race: To start the Zond 5 and save oneself time and one less Lunad landing program mission, or save money by skipping Zond 5.

In my recent playthrough I completed Zond 5 and looking back I see no benefits to it whatsoever. Having it count as count as completing the "Unmanned Lunar flyby test" goal, would make this program meaningfull within the logic of the space race.

Hello,

There are going to be some modifications to the Soviet lunar robotic program, we are planning that with the Soviet Program Chief Designer, Nachovich Liverotovsky. "Zond" is actually a Soyuz 7K-L1 (the circumlunar "lite version" without the fore Orbital Module) with bioscience experiments instead of cosmonauts. It will probably be "between" Luna 2 and Luna 15, which historically more accurate.

Performing that flight achieves the "Bioscience lunar flyby" goal, which earns you extra prestige points and might be used in the future as a step costing you something like 5% for Soviet manned lunar flights. We might also count it for a 7K-L1 uncrewed lunar flyby, that's a good idea.

Notice that you get a generous technology transfer from Zond to the Soyuz(es) or vice-versa.