Russia is set to launch its first moon landing spacecraft in nearly half a century on August 11.
The Luna-25 mission, which will lift off from the Vostochny spaceport, is part of an international race to explore the moon's south pole, an area thought to contain significant amounts of ice that could potentially support the moon's south pole. future human habitation.
The launch comes just four weeks after India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander was launched into space, with a scheduled landing at the moon's south pole on August 23.
Despite the tight timing, the Russian space agency Roscosmos assured that there would be no interference between the two missions as they have different landing sites planned.
"The moon is the seventh continent of the Earth, so we just 'doom', so to speak, over it," said Lev Zeleny, a space researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Luna-25 spacecraft, which weighs 1.8 tons and carries 31 kilograms of scientific equipment, will spend five to seven days in lunar orbit before landing at one of three possible near-pole landing sites.
Its main task is to take ice samples at a depth of 15 cm to check for the presence of frozen water.
The launch of Luna-25 marks an important milestone for Russia, helping to revive the lunar exploration program after a nearly 50-year hiatus.
However, the task is not without its challenges. Originally scheduled for October 2021, the launch was delayed by almost two years. Furthermore, the European Space Agency, which had planned to test its Pilot-D navigation camera on Luna-25, severed ties with the project after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February.
Despite these setbacks, Russia remains undeterred by its lunar ambitions. As Luna-25 prepares to take off, residents of a nearby village will be temporarily evacuated as the risk of rocket debris falling into the area is small.
They will be provided with a vantage point for the launch and a free breakfast, marking a momentous day in Russia's space history, Reuters reported.
