Russia launched its first spacecraft to the Moon in 47 years today, in an effort to be the first country to achieve a safe landing on the lunar south pole, an area believed to contain deposits of water ice. A Soyuz-2.1v rocket carrying the "Luna-25" spacecraft took off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, located 5,550 kilometers east of Moscow, at 02:11 AM Moscow time today.
Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian Space Agency, told Interfax today that the spacecraft is expected to land on the Moon's surface on August 21. According to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, the "Luna-25" spacecraft, launched earlier today, is now under the control of ground operators.
The "Luna-25" spacecraft, which is roughly the size of a small car, is planned to operate for one year at the Moon's south pole, where scientists from NASA and other space agencies have recently discovered signs of water ice in the dark areas of the region.
This mission also serves other purposes for the Kremlin, which claims that the Western sanctions imposed on Moscow due to the Ukraine war, which targeted the aviation and space sectors, have failed to cripple the Russian economy.
The Russian mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India's mission, which launched the "Chandrayaan-3" lander last month, and is also competing more broadly with the United States and China, which have advanced lunar exploration programs targeting the Moon's south pole.
