An assortment of animals including a pair of Russian tortoises, as well as wine flies and mealworms launched with a number of other biological specimens including seeds and bacteria on a circumlunar mission aboard the Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft on 15 September 1968. It was launched by a Proton-K rocket. The capsule came within of the Moon and later successfully returned to Earth, the first spacecraft in history to return safely to Earth from the Moon.