Luna-25, Russia's uncrewed lunar lander is scheduled to blast off early on Friday, its space agency Roscosmos said Monday, hoping to reach the Earth's natural satellite for the first time in nearly fifty years amid the Russia-Ukraine war, which continues to rage for a second year, causing tensions with the West.
The country after its successful mission to the moon for the first time in 1956 plans to launch the Luna-25 lander, its first since 1976, to revive a Soviet-era lunar program for which a Soyuz rocket has been assembled at Vostochny Cosmodrome, the Russian space agency revealed.
"The launch is on August 11," Roscosmos said in a statement. "The Luna-25 will have to practise soft landing, take and analyse soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research."
The four-legged lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms, is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole. By contrast, most moon landings occur near the lunar equator.
The launch is the first mission of Moscow's new lunar program and comes as Russia looks to strengthen cooperation in space with China amid ruptured ties with the West, AFP reported.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would not cooperate with Moscow on the upcoming Luna-25 launch as well as future 26 and 27 missions.
Despite the pullout, Moscow said at the time it would go ahead with its lunar plans and replace ESA equipment with Russian-made scientific instruments.
Speaking at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last year, Putin said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite "total" sanctions and insisted Moscow would develop its lunar programme despite current Western sanctions.
"We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside," Putin said at the time.
The announcement comes after India's Chandrayaan-3 successfully entered lunar orbit over the past few days after its launch last month.
If the landing is successful the rover will roll off Vikram, the lander, and explore the nearby lunar area, gathering images to be sent back to Earth for analysis.
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