Russia launches first lunar mission in nearly 50 years

Russia has launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in almost 50 years in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice.

- GUY FAULCONBRIDGE JOEY ROULETTE

The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, and more broadly with the United States and China, both of which run advanced lunar exploration programmes targeting the lunar south pole. A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, at 2.11am Moscow time yesterday.

The lander was boosted out of Earth’s orbit towards the moon more than an hour later, at which point mission control took command of the craft, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said. The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on 21 August, Russia’s space chief Yuri Borisov told state television, though the space agency previously pegged 23 August as the landing date.

“Now we will wait for the 21st. I hope that a highly precise soft landing on the moon will take place,” Mr Borisov told workers at the Vostochny cosmodrome after the launch. “We hope to be first.”