After a break of forty-seven years, Russia has successfully launched its very first spacecraft with the intention of landing on the moon.
The objective of the mission is to achieve a safe soft landing at the lunar southern pole, which is rumored to be home to ice reservoirs containing valuable quantities of water.
This lunar mission, which would be its first mission since 1976, puts itself in close competition with India, which recently achieved great success in the launch of its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander. The United States, as well as China, are both passionately pursuing enhanced lunar exploration efforts focused around the desired lunar south pole, which is why the world arena is witnessing a wider competition between the two countries.
A Soyuz 2.1v rocket launched the Luna-25 spaceship on Thursday at the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 11:11 p.m. Moscow time, which corresponds to 11:11 a.m. GMT. The cosmodrome is located 3,450 miles (5,550 kilometers) east of Moscow.
Yuri Borisov, the chairman of Russia’s space company Roscosmos, has stated his optimism for an extremely accurate and peaceful landing on the moon on August 21. The lunar touchdown is expected to take place on that day. The date of arrival, which had been planned to take place on the 23rd of August, will instead take place on the 21st.
After a successful landing, the lunar rover Luna-25, which is about the size of a compact car, will begin a mission that will last for an entire year to the moon’s southern pole. This region has recently drawn the attention of the scientific community as a result of the discovery by NASA and other space organizations that there are signs of water ice within its shadowed craters.
The Luna-25 mission is significant for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the scientific activities. The Kremlin sees it as a way to fight back against the sanctions that the West has imposed because of the situation in Ukraine. These sanctions, which were aimed against Moscow’s aerospace industry, have been shown to be ineffectual in weakening the economy of Russia.
In addition, the success of this journey to the moon will serve as a barometer of Russia’s growing autonomy in the field of space exploration. After its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia’s space relationship with the West has significantly decreased, using the International Space Station (ISS) being a particularly precarious point of collaboration between the two sides.
Asif Siddiqi, a historical professor from Fordham University, believes that Russia’s lunar goals reflect a multifaceted pursuit that includes the projection of state might on the international scene.
Although the legendary Neil Armstrong created history when he walked on the moon in 1969, the Luna-2 spacecraft of the Soviet Union was the one that touched down on the moon’s surface first in 1959. After that, in 1966, the Luna-9 spacecraft was successful in performing the first-ever soft touchdown on the moon.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia abandoned its plans to conduct interplanetary missions and instead focused its attention on the exploration of Mars.
