The first Russian lunar probe in almost 50 years was on its way to the moon on Friday. A mission that is intended to give new impetus to the Russian space industry, which has been ailing for years and isolated by the Ukraine conflict.
The launch of the Luna-25 probe marks the first lunar mission for Moscow since 1976, when the USSR was a pioneer in space exploration. A star that has faded due to funding problems and corruption scandals.
The Soyuz rocket carrying the nearly 800-kilogram probe lifted off promptly at 2:10 a.m. Moscow time (2310 GMT) from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East, according to images transmitted live by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.
The vehicle rose in a cloud of smoke and flames under a gray sky. It has five days to reach lunar orbit, where it will then spend between three and seven days choosing the right spot before landing in the lunar south pole.
“The launch of the device into a 100 km high lunar orbit is scheduled for August 16, and its soft landing on the surface of Earth’s natural satellite is expected on August 21 north of Buguslavsky Crater at the South Pole of the Moon,” Roscosmos said in a statement .
“For the first time in history, the moon landing will be performed on the lunar south pole. So far, all have landed in the equatorial zone,” a senior Roscosmos official, Alexandre Blokhine, said in a recent interview with the official newspaper Rossiïskaïa Gazeta.
“The ambition of our ancestors”
The mission of the probe, which has to stay on the moon for one year, will have the task “to take and analyze soil samples” and “to conduct long-term scientific research,” the space agency said.
This launch is the first mission of Russia’s new lunar program, which begins when Roscosmos loses its partnerships with the West. As in the diplomatic orientation, Moscow is therefore striving to expand space cooperation with China.
Ambitions run high: According to Russian space expert Vitaly Yegorov, this is the first time post-Soviet Russia has attempted to place a device on a celestial body.
“The bigger question will be: can it happen?” He told AFP, stressing that this mission is “of great importance” to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue Russia’s space program despite the sanctions, citing as an example that the USSR sent the first man into space in 1961 amid escalating East-West tensions.
“We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors, despite difficulties and external attempts to prevent us from moving forward,” Putin said in a speech at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last year.
“Risky” Mission
Still, the Luna 25 mission is “risky,” as Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov himself admits. “The probability of success of such missions is estimated at about 70%,” he told Vladimir Putin at a meeting in June.
The first stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle crashed 28 km from the village of Shakhtinsky in the Far East’s Khabarovsk Krai, the governor of the region, Mikhail Degtiariov, said via Telegram. According to him, the 18 residents of the village were evacuated an hour before the start and were able to return to their homes a few hours later.
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 launched the first satellite, Sputnik, sent the first animal, a dog named Laika, into Earth orbit, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, and then the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.
However, with Neil Armstrong’s flight in July 1969, the USSR defeated the United States as the first man on the moon.
Russia’s space program, which still relies heavily on Soviet-developed technologies, struggles to innovate and suffers from chronic underfunding, with Moscow prioritizing military spending.
It was also marked by corruption scandals and some failed launches, and was increasingly challenged by the US, China and also private initiatives like those of Space X and billionaire Elon Musk.