Russia Launches First Moon Mission in Nearly 50 Years

Russia launched its first lunar probe in more than 50 years on Friday. The goal of the mission was to revive Russia's space sector, which has been in decline for some time and has been increasingly isolated as a result of the Ukrainian issue.

The Luna-25 probe will be launched, marking Moscow's first lunar mission since the USSR's ground-breaking space conquest in 1976.

The rocket carrying the Luna-25 probe was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2:10 a.m. Moscow time (23:10 GMT) on Thursday, according to live video given by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The spacecraft should be in lunar orbit in five days.

After that, it will take anything from three to seven days to find the ideal location before landing close to the lunar south pole.

"The lunar landing will take occur on the lunar south pole for the first time ever. In a recent interview, senior Roscosmos official Alexander Blokhin stated that up to this point, everyone had been landing in the equatorial zone.

According to AFP, a source at Roscosmos anticipates the probe to touch down on the Moon around August 21.

According to the Russian space agency, the spacecraft, which will spend a year on the Moon, will be charged with "taking (samples) and analysing the soil" as well as "conducting long-term scientific research."

The launch is the first mission in Russia's new lunar programme, which gets underway at a time when Roscosmos is being deprived of its partnerships with the West amid the conflict with Ukraine.

According to Russian space expert Vitali Iegorov, the mission 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 told AFP, stressing that this mission is "of great importance" for Russia.

President Vladimir Putin has pledged to continue Russia's space programme despite sanctions, pointing to the USSR's sending of the first man into space in 1961, at a time 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 at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last year.

The mission is important for the Russian space sector, which is suffering from funding problems, corruption scandals and increasing competition from the United States and China, as well as from private initiatives such as billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX.