2023-08-08 08:02:17
Russia is preparing to launch its first spacecraft to the moon since 1976, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced on Monday. The launch of the Luna-25 lander will take place “on August 11 at 02:10:57 Moscow time” (23:10:57 GMT Thursday), the agency said in a statement, at a time when other world powers, such as the United States and China, are multiplying similar missions.
Roscosmos explained that a Soyuz launcher had been “assembled” at the Vostotchny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the launch of Luna-25, which will have to land near the South Pole of the Moon, “in difficult terrain”. The flight is expected to last between “four and a half and five and a half days”, according to data published by Roscosmos.
Once on the Moon, Luna-25, which weighs nearly 800 kilograms, will have the particular mission, for at least one year, of “taking (samples) and analyzing the soil and carrying out long-term scientific research”, a underlined the Russian space agency in its press release.
The launch is the first mission of Russia’s new lunar program and comes as that country seeks to strengthen its space collaboration with Beijing, its cooperation with Western space powers having been ravaged since the Russian military began its assault on Ukraine.
“It is of great importance, not even for Putin’s Russia, but for that of post-Putin, a peaceful Russia”, analysis with AFP Vitali Egorov, a Russian specialist in space. “This launch will show that the Russians are capable of engaging in the peaceful exploration of space,” he wants to believe.
Glorious past, uncertain future
After the launch of the military offensive by Vladimir Putin, the European Space Agency (ESA) gave up working with Moscow on the launch of Luna-25 and on future missions 26 and 27. Russia had declared that it would continue its lunar projects and would replace ESA equipment with nationally manufactured scientific equipment.
However, it has struggled to innovate for decades, its space sector having been plagued by a lack of resources and corruption. It has therefore relied for years on the reliability of its launchers, but Roscosmos faces ever-increasing competition and its position has deteriorated with Western sanctions.
During a trip to the Vostotchny cosmodrome in April 2022, Vladimir Putin thus assured that Russia would continue to implement its lunar program despite everything. “We are guided by the desire of our ancestors to move forward, despite all the difficulties and all the attempts to prevent us (from it),” said the Russian president.
Last June, the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borissov, however, described the Russian lunar mission as “risky”. “Around the world, the probability of success of such missions is estimated at around 70%,” he noted.
The last lunar mission of the USSR was that of the Luna-24 space probe, in 1976, more than 25 years following the first program of this type. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has struggled to get back into space exploration and its programs now face competition not only from state actors but also from private initiatives.
By Le360 (with AFP)
On 08/08/2023 at 07:59
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