2023-08-11 07:01:21
August 11, 2023 Today at 9:00 AM
This Friday, Russia sent its first probe to the Moon since 1976, as part of its new lunar program.
The first Russian lunar probe launched in nearly 50 years was on its way to the Moon on Friday, a mission intended to give new impetus to the Russian space sectorin difficulty for years and isolated because of the war in Ukraine.
The launch of the Luna-25 probe is the first lunar mission for Moscow since 1976, when the USSR was a pioneer in the conquest of space. A star that has faded due to funding problem and corruption scandals.
The Soyuz rocket carrying this probe of nearly 800 kilos took off at the scheduled time at 02:10 Moscow time (2310 GMT) from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East, according to images broadcast live by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Full screen view The Soyuz rocket took off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East. ©EPA
The craft rose in a plume of smoke and flame under a gray sky. It should reach lunar orbit in five days.on which it will then spend between three and seven days to choose the right place before landing in the lunar south pole area.
“For the first time in history, the moon landing will be carried out on the lunar south pole. So far, everyone landed in the equatorial zone,” said a senior Roscosmos official, Alexander Blokhine, in a recent interview with the official newspaper Rossiïskaïa Gazeta.
Crucial mission for Russia
The probe, which will have to stay on the Moon for a year, will have for mission to “take (samples) and analyze the soil”as well as “to carry out long-term scientific research,” the space agency said.
This launch is the first mission of the new Russian lunar program, which starts when Roscosmos is deprived of its partnerships with the West. As with its diplomatic orientation, Moscow is thus seeking to develop space cooperation with China.
The ambitions are high: according to Russian space expert Vitali Yegorov, this is the first time that post-Soviet Russia has attempted to place a device on a celestial body. “The biggest question will be: can it arise?”, he explained to AFP, stressing that this mission is “of great importance” for Russia.
President Vladimir Putin promised to continue the Russian space program despite the sanctions, taking as an example the sending by the USSR of the first man in space in 1961, in full escalation of East-West tensions. “We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite the difficulties and external attempts to prevent us from doing so,” Putin said, speaking at the Vostochny cosmodrome last year. .
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“We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite the difficulties and outside attempts to prevent us from doing so.”
Vladimir Poutine
Russian President
“Risky” job
Still, the Luna-25 mission is “risky”, by the very admission of the boss of Roscosmos Yuri Borissov. “The probability of success of such missions is estimated at around 70%”he told Vladimir Putin at a meeting in June.
The last Soviet mission to the Moon in 1976, Luna-24, brought soil samples back to Earth. The space sector is a source of great pride in Russia, the Soviets having launched the first satellite, Sputnik, sent into Earth orbit the first animal, a dog named Laika, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, then the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova. The USSR, however, had been beaten by the United States for the first man on the Moon, with the flight of Neil Armstrong in July 1969.
The Russian space program, which still relies heavily on Soviet-designed technologies, struggles to innovate and suffers from chronic underfunding, with Moscow prioritizing military spending. It was also marked by corruption scandals and some failed launcheswhile being increasingly challenged by the United States, China but also private initiatives, such as those of Space X, billionaire Elon Musk.
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