Russia has launched the rocket that carries the probe to the Moon, starting its first mission to the satellite in almost fifty years.
A mission destined to give new impetus to the Moscow space sector, which has been in difficulty and isolated for years due to the conflict in Ukraine
The Soyuz rocket, which carries a nearly 800-kilogram probe, was launched at 2.10 Moscow time from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur, according to images broadcast live by the Russian space agency Roscosmos. With a plume of smoke and flames under a gray sky.
It has to reach lunar orbit in five days, then it will take three to seven days to choose the right place before landing in the lunar south pole area. According to a source within Roscosmos, the agency expects a landing of the probe around 21 August.
“For the first time in history, the moon landing will be carried out on the lunar south pole. Until now, everyone was on the moon in the equatorial zone,” said a senior Roscosmos official, Alexandre Blokhine.
The probe, which will have to stay on the moon for a year, will have the mission of “taking (samples) and analyzing the soil”, as well as “carrying out long-term scientific research”, the space agency specified.
This launch is the first mission of Russia’s new lunar program, which begins as Roscosmos is stripped of its partnerships with the West. Moscow is therefore trying to develop space cooperation with China.
The launch of the Luna-25 probe is the first lunar mission for Moscow since 1976, when the Soviet Union was at the forefront of the conquest of space.