Dhe Russian lunar probe Luna-25 is on its way to the moon. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the probe on board took off on Friday morning at 1:10 a.m. German time (2:10 a.m. Moscow time) from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region. If everything goes according to plan, the flight will take four and a half to five and a half days land the spacecraft near the south pole of the moon. If successful, this would be the first successful Russian lunar mission since 1976.
In the Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk, the authorities evacuated the residents of the village of Shakhtinsky as a precaution before the rocket was launched. There was a risk that the first rocket stage of the Soyuz could have hit there.
Actually, the probe should have been on the way for a long time. The first planned launch date was in 2012, with May 2022 being the last target. Luna-25 is part of the Russian lunar program. This envisages building a space station on the earth’s satellite by 2040. Russia is thus building on its Soviet Luna program, in which space probes also brought moon rocks to Earth. Moscow last sent the Luna-24 probe to the moon in 1976.
Luna-25 is designed to help develop soft landing technology. In the course of this, the probe should also collect and analyze soil samples from the moon, Roskosmos said. The planned investigations also include a study of the surface layers in the area of the south pole of the moon. The mission should last at least a year.
Cold War in Space
The mission is the first of Russia’s new lunar program. It comes at a time of political tensions with the United States and Europe over Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. Therefore, Moscow wants to strengthen its space cooperation, especially with China.
Roskosmos originally worked with the European space agency ESA on the Russian lunar program. After the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the European Space Agency said it would not cooperate with Russia on the launch of Luna-25 nor on future missions 26 and 27. Moscow then announced that it wanted to replace ESA equipment for its lunar projects with Russian-made equipment.
The competition for control and influence in space is in full swing. The USA and China are also currently stepping up their moon landing missions. So far, only the USA, Russia and China have landed on the moon. An Indian lunar probe is currently circling in lunar orbit. “Chandrayaan-3” was launched in mid-July and is scheduled to land on the south side of the satellite on August 23 or 24. Meanwhile, NASA has announced that the lunar charge planned for 2025 will likely be postponed due to technical problems.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has been trying to drive innovation in space exploration. Russia’s space programs are now not only in competition with other state actors, but also with private initiatives such as billionaire Elon Musk’s space company Space-X.
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