Russia to launch Luna-25 moon probe 46 years after its predecessor Luna-24

Europe, News April 13, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Russia plans to launch the Luna-25 moon probe from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on August 22, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced.

This would be Russia’s first mission to the moon in the last 46 years. The last moon mission of Luna-24 was undertaken by the Soviet Union in 1976. The Luna-25 would focus on testing the soft-landing techniques in the moon’s circumpolar region.

April 12 marked the anniversary of humanity’s leap into space as 61 years ago on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space. The Russian cosmonaut was aboard the Soviet Union spacecraft, Vostok 1. He circled the earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes before successfully heading back home.

Soviet Union’s entry into space started a space race that continues to date. Gagarin became a hero of the Soviet and the Eastern bloc and a famous figure around the world. Soviet Union’s glory of the space journey remained the headline of modern space history until NASA put a man on the moon.

As the rift between modern-day Russia and its Western rivals continues to deepen, Russia announced the revival of its moon mission in order to make a statement about the technological advancements of the Russian federation.

The launch of the moon probe Luna-25 would be Russia’s first moon mission in 46 years that has been revitalized by President Putin. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on April 12 that Moscow will launch Luna-25 towards the moon in the third quarter of this year. The announcement came during Putin’s meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at the Russian spaceport of Vostochny Cosmodrome in the east Russian region of Amur, where the two leaders had come together to celebrate the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s successful space flight.

Russia is facing severe sanctions from all the leading countries in space technology including the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Canada. Running a moon mission while being sanctioned by Western countries would prove to be a hard task for Putin’s administration to pull off.

^{Russian President Vladimir Putin with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin visit the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky. (Image Credit: AP)}

Putin’s visit to Vostochny is his first known trip outside of Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine started on February 24. He toured the facility with the Belarusian President and stated that this facility is providing vital support in Russia’s ‘space military operations’ in order to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine. While visiting the spaceport he recalled the Soviet successes of space dominance and said that no sanctions can stop Russia from making progress in space technology.

While speaking about Russia’s conquest in Ukraine at the Vostochny launch facility, President Putin stated that Ukraine was being turned into an ‘Anti-Russia bridgehead’ through the ‘nationalism and neo-Nazisim’.

Putin said that Russia had no other choice in Ukraine. “This new generation of Ukrainian nationalists are especially clashing with Russia. You see how Nazi ideology became a fact of life in Ukraine,” he added.

Ukraine and its western allies have repeatedly dismissed such remarks from the Russian President and claim it to be just an excuse to cover his unjustified aggression. Putin reaffirmed his claims that the Russian ‘military operation’ in Ukraine was aimed to protect the Ukrainian people in eastern Ukraine and to ensure Russia’s own security.