Will Russia return to the global aerospace race? It will launch its first spacecraft to the Moon on Friday since 1976, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced on Monday, August 7, as it has struggled for decades to carry out its own projects.
The launch of the Luna 25 lander will take place “on August 11 at 02:10:57 Moscow time” (23:10:57 GMT Thursday), Roscosmos said in a statement, as world powers, such as states States and China, multiply the missions for the moon landings.
A flight of almost five days
Roscosmos said a Soyuz launcher had been “assembled” at the Vostotchny cosmodrome in the Far East for the launch of Luna 25, which will land near the Moon’s south pole, “in difficult terrain”. The flight is expected to last between “four and a half and five and a half days”, according to data published by Roscosmos and quoted by the official Tass news agency.
Once on the Moon, Luna 25, which weighs nearly 800 kilograms, will notably have the mission for at least a year to “sample and analyze the soil and carry out long-term scientific research”, indicated the Russian space agency in its official statement.
Roscosmos said a Soyuz launcher had been “assembled” at the Vostotchny cosmodrome in the Far East for the launch of Luna 25, which will land near the Moon’s south pole, “in difficult terrain”.
© / AFP
The European Space Agency no longer cooperates with Russia
This launch is the first mission of Russia’s new lunar program and comes at a time when Moscow wishes in particular to strengthen its space cooperation with Beijing, in full tension with the Western space powers because of Ukraine.
After the launch of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would no longer cooperate with Russia on the launch of Luna-25, nor on future missions 26 and 27 .
Russian-made scientific equipment
Despite this withdrawal, Moscow had declared that it would continue its lunar projects and replace ESA equipment with Russian-made scientific equipment. The USSR’s last lunar mission was that of the Luna 24 space probe, in 1976.
Since the fall of the USSR, Moscow has struggled to innovate in the field of space exploration and its programs now face competition not only from state actors but also from private initiatives, such as Space X, by billionaire Elon Musk.