Space mission: A rocket carrying a lunar landing craft took off on Friday (August 11) on Russia’s first moon mission in about 50 years, in a race to touch down on the Moon ahead of India’s Chandrayaan-3.
The launch from Russia's Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of Luna-25 craft to the moon is Russia's first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union.
The Russian lunar lander is expected to make a landing on August 23, the same date as Chandrayaan-3 which was launched on July 14.
The Russian spacecraft will take nearly 5.5 days to travel to the moon's vicinity, which would then spend three days to nearly a week orbiting at about 100 kilometers before heading for the surface.
So far, only three governments have successfully managed to land on the Moon - the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
India and Russia are aiming to be the first to land at the moon's south pole.
Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said it wants to show Russia “is a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon.”
Vitaly Egorov, a popular Russian space analyst said, “Study of the moon is not the goal. The goal is political competition between two superpowers — China and the USA — and a number of other countries which also want to claim the title of space superpower.”
Sanctions imposed on Russia after the Ukraine invasion made it harder of the country to access Western technology, which also impacted its space programme.
According to the analysts, the Luna-25 was initially meant to carry a small moon rover but that idea was abandoned to reduce the weight of the craft for improved reliability.
“Foreign electronics are lighter, domestic electronics are heavier. While scientists might have the task of studying lunar water, for Roscosmos the main task is simply to land on the moon — to recover lost Soviet expertise and learn how to perform this task in a new era,” Egorov said.
The Luna-25 launched flawlessly from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East, according to video feed from Roscosmos.
The spaceport is a pet project of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is key to his efforts to make Russia a space superpower and move Russian launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
A previous Indian attempt to land at the moon's south pole in 2019 ended when the lander crashed into the moon's surface.
The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain water.
Meanwhile, ISRO on Friday congratulated Russian space agency Roscosmos for the successful launch of Luna-25.
India and Russia are both aiming to be the first-ever country to land on the Moon's south pole.
"Congratulations, Roscosmos on the successful launch of Luna-25. Wonderful to have another meeting point in our space journies. Wishes for (India's) Chandrayaan-3 & (Russia's) Luna-25 missions to achieve their goals," ISRO tweeted.
(With AP inputs)
