2023-08-08 17:21:49
On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the very first manned flight into space, and put the USSR in the lead in the race for the stars. With this feat, the Soviet giant affirms the power of its model against its American rival. Six decades later, the Russia hopes to once again distinguish itself spatially, with the Friday August 11 launch of Luna-25a lander designed to land on the Lune.
Russian space agency Roscosmos said a Soyuz launch vehicle had been “assembled” at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East for the launch of Luna-25, which will 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”.
His mission ? “Take samples, analyze the ground, conduct long-term scientific research,” according to the press release from the Russian space agency. “Luna-25 is part of a program that prepares for the moon landings, summarizes Xavier Pasco, expert in space policy issues and director of the Foundation for Strategic Research. With this program, the Russians want to show that they are in the race , despite the situation in Ukraine where they seem stuck.”
A sea serpent-like project
With Luna-25, Russia is playing big. This is its first launch of a machine on the Moon since 1976, in a context very different from the time of Soviet splendour. Mined by debts and corruption, Roscosmos, the Russian agency, is struggling to carry out its projects. His last public failure dates from last February, with the leak coolant from a Soyuz spacecraft.
The Luna-25 mission itself looks like a sea serpent: developed in 1997 in the rubble of the Soviet Union, its launch is planned for the 2010s, but encounters successive disappointments. “I don’t know how many Luna-25 launches have been planned!” confesses René Pischer, representative of theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) to Russia.
The Russian space project has also come up against more recent upheavals in history. Initially involved in the launch of Luna-25 but also Luna-26 and above all Luna-27, an ambitious mission for the scientific exploitation of lunar resources, the European Space Agency (ESA), terminated all collaboration after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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René Pischer portrays: “On Luna-27, we provided two things: a drilling aid, and navigational tools that help accomplish the most precise landing possible.” The split between the two organizations also dealt a terrible blow to ExoMarsan ambitious European program to explore the red planet.
Today, European collaboration with Russia exists only in the form of vestiges. “The level of activity in Russia is much lower, notes René Pischer. There remains the collaboration around the International Space Station, and the withdrawal of equipment linked to the ExoMars mission. It’s sad.”
Flagship of Soviet heritage
So, without help from Europe, what are the chances of success for the Luna-25 mission? “Until now, the Russian space sector has survived thanks to international cooperation, comments Isabelle Sourbès-Verger, geographer and director of research at the CNRS, specialist in the comparative analysis of national space policies. The Russian agency has taken the used to using components of American or European origin. He has to find that skill. So it will be interesting to see the result of this launch: it is a difficult and complicated mission on the south pole of the Moon, and it’s been a long time since Russia had a successful space exploration mission.”
If successful, Russia would symbolically reconnect with its past. Named after an illustrious series of Soviet missions, Luna-25 openly carries this legacy. “Vladimir Putin has never been passionate about space but it is one of the jewels of the Soviet heritage, underlines Isabelle Sourbès-Verger. It is one of his major areas of prestige, along with nuclear power.”
In April 2022, during a trip to the Vostotchny cosmodrome, the Russian head of state also insisted on recalling that the USSR had succeeded in 1961 in sending Yuri Gagarin into space despite “total” sanctions. taken against her.
To regain its place at the center of the space game, Russia can count on an old ally: China. Having become a major player in the conquest of space, Beijing plans to jointly install with Moscow a permanent station on the surface of the Moon.
An alliance forged a long time ago, from the end of the Soviet Union, and strengthened since 2014, in response to the American steamroller. The United States remains by far the country that allocates the most resources to space exploration, and the involvement of private players, such as Elon Musk’s Space X or Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, has strengthened the competition in the race for the stars.
“The big deal in space is the return to the Moon, says Xavier Pasco. By turning to this activity, Russia is sending a geopolitical message. For now, it’s a scientific and peaceful issue, but this type of major program, which will occupy us for the next 30 years, will no doubt end up having more political aspects.”
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Faced with this reconfiguration, which looks like tension between blocks, it is difficult to see where international collaboration takes place. Since the fall of the Soviet bloc, space has remained one of the rare areas of cooperation between geopolitical rivals; United States, Russia and Europe worked together on the International Space Station (ISS). This is coming to an end, and Russia has already announced its withdrawal from the ISS after 2024. End of an era?
Not so fast. Isabelle Sourbès-Verger nuance: “We had the period of the space race until 1970, then a period of cooperation, with the disappearance of the USSR and the recovery of Russian means. In 2025 or 2030, this will be over, and several national programs will develop independently. But that does not mean the end of all solidarity.” Manned flights, costly missions with complex logistics, can only be accomplished in teams, in particular in the case of missions towards Mars, she points. “We must keep this earthly solidarity in the face of the difficulty of the challenge.”
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