After multiple delays, Russia's space agency finally announces much-anticipated Luna 25 moon mission will launch in July 2022
The first of three planned Russian missions to the Moon will launch in July 2022, the chief of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has revealed, finally bringing an end to years of delays postponing the take-off of the Luna 25 lander.
Speaking on Tuesday, Dmitry Rogozin told TV station Channel One that the lunar robot will be fired into space from the Vostochny Cosmodrome next year.
The lander, the latest in the Luna series – and the first since Luna 24 in 1976 – was initially scheduled for 2019. It has been postponed numerous times, but it is seemingly now finally ready to go to the Moon.
Also on rt.com Russia’s missions to explore cosmos held back by mixture of Western sanctions and Covid-19 pandemic, country’s space agency warnsLuna 25 will be used to test the Russian-made landing technology. Once on the Moon, it will study the surface before collecting and delivering lunar soil to Earth.
Another two missions, Luna 26 and Luna 27, are planned for the near future.
Rogozin also revealed that the joint ExoMars-2022 mission between the European Space Agency and Roscosmos to search for evidence of life on the red planet would take off in September.
Also on rt.com WATCH: Russian Soyuz rocket launches 34 satellites into orbit as part of mission to expand internet coverage throughout globeCreated in 1958, the Soviet Luna program successfully explored the Moon on 15 different occasions, accomplishing many firsts in space exploration. Luna 2 was the first man-made object to reach the Moon, while Luna 3 took the first photographs of the far side. Luna 9, in 1966, made the first soft landing on the Earth’s only natural satellite.
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