Russia Launches Luna- 25; In Race To Land On Moon’s South Pole Before Chandrayaan-3

NEW DELHI: Despite being locked in a race to land on the moon first, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday congratulated its Russian counterpart and now competitor Roscosmos after it successfully launched Luna-25, its first moon mission in nearly five decades. Luna-25 is now scheduled to land on the moon ahead of Chandrayaan-3.

Roscosmos is the state corporation of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for space flights. It is going solo for the first time since European Space Agency (ESA) cut ties with the Russian space agency after the invasion of Ukraine.

ISRO said on X (formerly Twitter), “Congratulations, Roscosmos on the successful launch of Luna-25. Wonderful to have another meeting point in our space journies. Wishes for Chandrayaan-3 & Luna-25 missions to achieve their goals.” The meeting point referred to here is the Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25’s scheduled landing at the south pole of the moon on the same day, before Roscosmos advanced its landing date by two days.

A Soyuz rocket carrying a lunar landing craft blasted off on Friday (August 11) on Russia's first lunar mission in nearly 50 years, is racing to land on Earth's natural satellite ahead of the India’s Chandrayaan-3.

Although India’s lunar lander mission Chandrayaan-3 blasted off for the moon on July 14, ahead of Luna- 25 by a considerable difference in time. ISRO plans to land Chandrayaan- 3 on August 23, whereas Russia has advanced its landing date from the same date as ISRO to August 21.

A Soyuz 2.1v rocket blasted off carrying the Luna-25 craft from the Vostochny cosmodrome, located around 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. on Friday Moscow time (1111 GMT on Thursday). The Russian rocket boosted the lander out of Earth's orbit toward the moon nearly an hour later, said Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

The launch of the Luna-25 craft to the moon from Russia's Vostochny spaceport in the Far East, is the first such mission by Russia since 1976 and after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Till now, the Soviet Union, the United States and China are the only three governments to have managed successful landings on the moon. Now, India and Russia are both aiming to be the first to land at the moon’s south pole, with both missions now competing for the honour.

The lander of Luna- 25 is expected to make a soft landing on the moon on August 21, Russia's space chief Yuri Borisov told Interfax. The space agency had earlier pegged August 23 as the landing date.

Roscosmos explained the timeline, stating that its Luna 25 spacecraft will take about five days to travel to the Moon. It is then slated to spend around five to seven days in lunar orbit before descending to one of three potential landing sites near the south pole.

The lunar south pole is considered to be a prized target due to the reason that it is expected to hold significant quantities of ice that could be used to extract oxygen and fuel to be used for future space exploration, according to Reuters. Both Russia and India are now in a race to be the first country to land a probe on the south pole.

Roscosmos had stated in a statement earlier that, along with demonstrating soft-landing capabilities, Luna-25 is designated to analyse soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research on the Moon’s surface, while Chandrayaan-3 aims to demonstrate the capability to complete a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, mobility of its rover, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments, said ISRO.

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