The craft rose in a plume of smoke and flame under gray skies at the scheduled time on Friday, August 11. It was 2:10 a.m. Moscow time (1:10 a.m. Paris time) when the Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off to the Moon, carrying the Luna-25 probe with it, from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East, according to the images broadcast live by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.
The launch of this 800 kilogram probe is the first lunar mission for Moscow since 1976, when the USSR was a pioneer in the conquest of space. A star that has faded due to funding problems and corruption scandals.
Soyuz must reach lunar orbit in five days, on which it will then spend between three and seven days to choose the right place before touching down in the lunar south pole area. According to a source within Roscosmos contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the agency plans a landing of the probe around August 21, at the same time as an Indian craft which was launched on July 14.
A great scientific interest for the lunar south pole
Only three countries have had successful moon landings: the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. India and Russia are aiming to be the first to land at the Moon’s south pole. A previous Indian attempt in 2019 ended when the lander crashed on the surface.
“For the first time in history, the moon landing will be performed on the lunar south pole. So far, everyone landed in the equatorial zone,” said a senior Roscosmos official, Alexander Blokhin, in a recent interview with the official newspaper Rossiïskaïa Gazeta.
The probe, which will have to stay on the moon for a year, will have the mission of “collecting [samples] and analyzing the soil”, as well as “conducting long-term scientific research”, the space agency said.
The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe that permanently shadowed polar craters could hold water. The water frozen in the rocks could be turned by future explorers into air and rocket fuel.
This launch is the first mission of the new Russian lunar program, which starts at a time when Roscosmos is deprived of its partnerships with the West. As with its diplomatic orientation, Moscow is thus seeking to develop space cooperation with China.
The ambitions are high: according to Russian space expert Vitali Yegorov, this is the first time that post-Soviet Russia has attempted to place a device on a celestial body. “The biggest question will be: can it land? “, he explained to AFP, stressing that this mission is “of great importance” for Russia.
“Risky” Mission
President Vladimir Putin has promised to continue the Russian space program despite sanctions, taking as an example the USSR sending the first man into space in 1961, in the midst of escalating East-West tensions.
“We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite difficulties and external attempts to prevent us from doing so,” Putin said, speaking at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last year. .
Still, the Luna-25 mission is “risky”, by the admission of Roscosmos boss Yuri Borisov. “The probability of success of such missions is estimated at about 70%,” he told Vladimir Putin during a meeting in June.
The first stage of the Soyuz launcher must fall in the vicinity of the village of Chakhtinski, in the Khabarovsk region in the Far East. The authorities announced the evacuation of its inhabitants from Friday morning.
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 having launched the first satellite, Sputnik, sent into Earth orbit the first animal, a dog named Laika, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, then the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova . The USSR had however been beaten by the United States for the first man on the Moon, with the flight of Neil Armstrong in July 1969.
The Russian space program, which still relies largely on Soviet-designed technology, struggles to innovate and suffers from chronic underfunding, with Moscow prioritizing military spending. It has also been marked by corruption scandals and a few failed launches, while being increasingly challenged by the United States, China but also private initiatives, such as those of Space X, billionaire Elon Musk.
