Russia launches rocket to the moon in first lunar mission in nearly 50 years

10 August 2023 , 23:41

1125     0

The launch took place on Friday

A rocket carrying a lunar landing craft blasted off Friday on Russia's first moon mission in nearly 50 years.

The launch from Russia's spaceport in the Far East of the 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 reach the moon on Aug. 23, about the same day as an Indian craft which was launched on July 14.

Only three governments have managed successful moon landings: 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," and "ensure Russia's guaranteed access to the moon's surface."

"Study of the moon is not the goal," said Vitaly Egorov, a popular Russian space analyst. "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."

It lifted off from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East

Sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine make it harder for it to access Western technology, impacting its space program. 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, analysts say.

'Weird' comet heading towards the sun could be from another solar system

"Foreign electronics are lighter, domestic electronics are heavier," Egorov said. "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."

The spaceport is a pet project of Vladimir Putin

The Luna-25 was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East. 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.

The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain water. The frozen water in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel. "The moon is largely untouched and the whole history of the moon is written on its face," said Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "It is pristine and like nothing you get on Earth. It is its own laboratory."

It is set to reach the moon on August 23

The Luna-25 is to take samples of moon rock and dust. The samples are crucial to understanding the moon's environment ahead of building any base there, "otherwise we could be building things and having to shut them down six months later because everything has effectively been sand-blasted," Bloomer said.

William Walker