Laboratory Head of ICA RAS Maxim Litvak said that the launch in 2022 the Moon-25 interplanetary station will help Russia to break out in the “lunar race”, RIA Novosti reports.
At a meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences of Litvak space, the leadership in the “cosmic race”. In his opinion, the mission “Luna-25” will provide the country the first position in this area.
“If this mission is implemented, then we can escape here not only the Chinese, but also other applicants for this lunar race. In the next few years there are no such Chinese analogues,” the member of the Russian Academy of Sciences stressed.
Previously, the launch of the Russian “Luna-25” was officially postponed for July 2022. This was announced by the general director of Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. At the same time, the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences Academician Yuri Balaga, declared a shortage of time to complete the preparation of the device.
Luna-25 Start is scheduled from the Soyuz-2.1b-2.1B accelerated carrier cosmodrome with the frigate acceleration unit. Work on “Lunaya-25” (the initial name – “Luna-Glob”) began in 2005. Initially, the probe was going to run in 2014, but the decision to replace the carrier rocket led to the first launch transfer. The last Soviet mission on the moon (“Luna-24”), during which the samples of the soil were delivered to Earth from the satellite, took place in 1976.