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The Russian space program has launched a probe to the moon for the first time since 1976. Luna-25 blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region and is aiming to touch down in the southern polar region by August 21.
All previous probes have landed in the equatorial region. If it lands successfully, Luna-25 would arrive two days before India’s Chandrayaan-3 for a historic first lunarfall in the rugged polar terrain.
Luna-25 is the first moon probe made in modern Russia, entirely from domestic components. The USSR launched 24 official ‘Luna’ missions between September 1958 and August 1976.
The probe’s objective is to carry out scientific research in the southern polar region of the moon.
Luna-25 is equipped with instruments for analyzing the lunar soil, plasma and dust components for the presence of rare minerals.
Russia launched a Soyuz rocket carrying a probe to the Moon on Friday, live images showed, kicking off its first mission to the celestial body in nearly 50 years
More details: https://t.co/wY1l7FqapP #Russia #Chandrayaan3 #lunarmission pic.twitter.com/Gu8OUCbxmQ
— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 11, 2023
The designated lunarfall site is near the Boguslavsky Crater and the mission is scheduled to run for one year.
According to Roscosmos, the crucial first phase of the mission will take nine minutes, from liftoff to the third-stage separation of the Fregat module, carrying the probe.
The module is supposed to fire the main engine twice to set Luna-25 on a flight path to the moon.
The flight itself is supposed to take five days, with two trajectory corrections along the way. The last phase will take about three days and set the probe on a circumpolar orbit at the altitude of around 100 kilometers.
In the fourth phase, Luna-25 would switch to an elliptical landing orbit with a minimum altitude of 18 kilometers and carry out a soft landing in the south polar region.