After nearly 50 years, Russia’s Roscosmos launched its first lunar mission, aiming to land the Luna-25 probe on the lunar south pole by August 21st, reactivating the struggling Russian space sector amid corruption scandals and funding problems.
Russia launched its first probe to the Moon in almost 50 years on Friday, a mission designed to give fresh impetus to its long-struggling space sector, which sanctions have also hit since the conflict in Ukraine.
The launch of the Luna-25 probe is Moscow’s first lunar mission since 1976 when the USSR pioneered space.
The rocket with the Luna-25 probe lifted off at 02:10 am Moscow time (2310 GMT Thursday) from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, according to live images broadcast by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Roscosmos expects the probe to enter a “100-kilometer high lunar orbit” on August 16th and land on the Moon north of the Boguslawsky crater on August 21st, the agency said.
“For the first time in history, the landing will occur on the lunar south pole. Until now, everyone has been landing in the equatorial zone,” senior Roscosmos official Alexander Blokhin said in a recent interview.
According to Russian space expert Vitali Iegorov, the mission is the first time post-Soviet Russia has attempted to place a device on a celestial body.
President Vladimir Putin has pledged to continue Russia’s space program despite sanctions, pointing to the USSR’s sending of the first man into space in 1961 at a time of escalating East-West tensions.
But the mission is “risky,” Roscosmos’ chief Yuri Borisov has admitted. “The chance of success of these missions is estimated at around 70 percent,” he told Putin at a meeting in June.
The mission is important for the Russian space sector, which has suffered from funding problems, corruption scandals, increasing competition from the United States and China, and private initiatives such as billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
