The launch of the Luna-25 mission with which Russia aims to return to lunar soil after 47 years is scheduled for tonight , when it will be 1:10 in Italy on Friday 11 August.

Moscow will try to carry out the first moon landing in the region of the South Pole , particularly rich in ice, and will do so without the foreseen collaboration of the European Space Agency, interrupted after the invasion of Ukraine.

The protagonist of the mission will be an 800-kilogram lander that will be launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome with a Soyuz rocket. In June, the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, Yuri Borisov, described the launch as "high risk".

"This mission involves arriving at the South Pole. No one in the world has ever done it before," he said during a meeting with President Putin. « The probability of successfully completing missions like this is estimated at around 70% », the clarification.

Arrival at destination is expected to occur approximately five days after launch .

The lander will attempt a soft landing to then kick off the actual operational mission, lasting about a year . The eight scientific instruments on board will then come into action, which will be used to study the lunar regolith as well as the dust and plasma that make up the exosphere of our satellite.

The Luna-25 mission is in continuity with the lunar exploration program of the former Soviet Union "Luna": launched in 1959, it has completed 24 missions, 15 of which were successful. The last, Luna-24, ended on August 22, 1976 by returning about 170 grams of lunar soil to Earth.

(Unioneonline/vl)

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