2023-08-11 05:31:46
Russia launched its first probe to the moon on Friday in nearly 50 years. This mission is intended to give new impetus to its space sector, which has been struggling for years and isolated due to the conflict in Ukraine.
The launch of the Luna-25 probe is the first lunar mission for Moscow since 1976, when the USSR was a pioneer in the conquest of space. The Soyuz rocket carrying the nearly 800-kilogram probe took off on time at 2:10 a.m. Moscow time (1:10 a.m. in Switzerland) from the Vostotchny cosmodrome in the Far East, according to images broadcast live by the Russian space agency. Roscosmos.
The craft rose in a plume of smoke and flame under a gray sky. It must reach lunar orbit in five days, on which it will then spend between three and seven days to choose the right place before landing in the lunar south pole area. According to a source within Roscosmos contacted by AFP, the agency plans a landing of the probe around August 21.
Cooperation with China
“For the first time in history the moon landing will be carried out on the lunar south pole. Until now, everyone was landing in the equatorial zone”, welcomed a senior official of Roscosmos, Alexandre Blokhine, in a recent interview with the official Rossiïskaïa Gazeta newspaper.
The probe, which will have to stay on the Moon for a year, will have the mission of “taking (samples) and analyzing the soil”, as well as “carrying out long-term scientific research”, further indicated the space agency.
This launch is the first mission of the new Russian lunar program, which starts 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.
“Risky” job
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.
The Luna-25 mission is indeed “risky”, by the very admission of the boss of Roscosmos Yuri Borissov. “The probability of success of such missions is estimated at around 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.
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