Maxim Litvak, head of the laboratory of the ICI RAS, said that the launch of the Luna-25 interplanetary station in 2022 will help Russia to get ahead in the "lunar race", RIA Novosti reports.
At a meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Space, Litvak predicted Russia's leadership in the "space race". In his opinion, the Luna-25 mission will provide the country with the first positions in this area.
"If this mission is realized, then we will be able to get ahead of not only the Chinese, but also other contenders of this lunar race. In the next few years, there are no such Chinese analogues yet," the member of the Russian Academy of Sciences stressed.
Earlier, the launch of the Russian Luna-25 was officially postponed to July 2022. This was announced by the General Director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin. At the same time, earlier the Vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Yuri Balegi, stated that there was a lack of time to complete the preparation of the apparatus.
The launch of Luna-25 is planned from the Vostochny cosmodrome by a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Fregat upper stage. Work on "Luna-25" (the original name — "Luna-Globe") began in 2005. Initially, the probe was going to be launched in 2014, but the decision to replace the launch vehicle led to the first postponement of the launch. The last Soviet mission to the Moon (Luna-24), during which soil samples were delivered to Earth from a satellite, took place in 1976.
Marina Sovina
