It is the first lunar mission in almost 50 years: now the Russian space probe “Luna-25” has taken the first picture of the moon’s surface and sent it to Earth.
The probe photographed, among other things, the Zeeman crater near the south pole on the far side of the moon, which is not visible from Earth, the Russian space agency Roskosmos announced in Moscow on Thursday. The crater is of particular interest to scientists.
Roskosmos recalled that the first images of the far side of the moon were taken in 1959 with the Soviet Luna-3 probe. The new mission is the first since the launch of the last Soviet lunar probe, Luna-24, in 1976.
Luna-25 reached orbit on Wednesday after more than five days of flight and is now searching for an ideal landing site before landing near the South Pole on August 21. One of the tasks of the probe, which weighs 1,800 kilograms, is to search for water.
Daily update from Roscosmos:
The Russian automatic station Luna 25 continues to fly around the moon
All systems of the automatic station function normally, communication with them is stable. pic.twitter.com/rci7SOTa9b
— Space Initiatives (@AsteroidEnergy) August 18, 2023
The goal of the Russian lunar program is to build a space station on the moon by 2040. The probe was originally scheduled to launch in 2012, but technical problems delayed the mission. The European Space Agency Esa ended cooperation with Russia after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Source: Blick
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