Russia conducted its final preparations today, Thursday, for the launch of its first spacecraft to the Moon in 47 years, racing against time to become the first country to achieve a safe landing on the lunar south pole, which may contain vast deposits of ice water. The Russian space agency announced that it would launch the "Soyuz 2.1b" rocket carrying the "Luna-25" spacecraft from the Vostochniy spaceport, located 5,550 kilometers east of Moscow, tomorrow, Friday, at 02:11 Moscow time. The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the Moon's surface on August 23.
This Russian space mission to the Moon, the first of its kind since 1976, is in competition with India, which launched its "Chandrayaan-3" rocket to the Moon last month, as Russia competes more broadly with the United States and China, both of which have advanced lunar exploration programs. For centuries, astronomers have questioned the presence of water on the Moon, which is said to be about 100 times drier than the desert.
NASA's maps from 2021 indicated the presence of ice water in the dark regions of the Moon, and in 2020, it confirmed the existence of water in areas that receive sunlight.
