Russia to launch moon lander after 5 decades in race with Indian craft | India News

In a race with India to reach the south pole region of the Moon first, Russia is set to launch its first lunar landing mission on August 11 after nearly five decades. Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft will be lifted off on Friday, 28 days after India’s Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14. The Russian probe is set to touch down around the same time as of Chandrayaan-3, on August 23.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said Luna-25 will take five days to fly to the Moon and then spend 5-7 days in the lunar orbit before descending on one of three possible landing sites. Roscosmos has assured that there will be no interference between the two landing missions as they have different landing areas planned.
In comparison to the 1,752kg Chandrayaan-3 lander, the Russian lander weighs 800kg. The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover will run their experiments for 14 Earth days while Luna-25 will work on the Moon for a year. Luna-25 will use a scoop to take rock samples from a depth of up to 15cm to test for the presence of frozen water.