New Delhi: With its spacecraft Luna-25 entering lunar orbit Wednesday, Russia is all set to become the first to land on the south pole of the Moon, the only natural satellite of Planet Earth. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is also heading towards the lunar south pole and its soft landing is scheduled on August 23. According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, Luna-25 entered the moon's orbit at 11:57 am (around 2.30 pm IST) and is scheduled to make a soft landing on August 21 after having circled the Moon for around five days.
Luna-25 is reported to have undertaken this trip to the Moon in search of frozen water. Roscosmos has said the spacecraft is likely to operate on the lunar south pole for a year.
Luna-25, around the size of a small car, is Russia’s first craft to enter lunar orbit since 1976 when Luna-24 achieved the feat for the Soviet Union.
Until now, only three countries have managed to successfully land on the Moon. They are the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. If successful, India and Russia will be the first to land at the Moon’s south pole.
India had made a similar attempt in 2019, but the lander crashed into the surface of the Moon.
"Some are calling this the second lunar race so it is very important for Russia to resume this programme. Luna-25 is not just one mission - it is part of a much broader Russian strategy that stretches 10 years into the future," Anatoly Zak, the publisher of RussianSpaceWeb.com which tracks Russian space programmes, told news agency Reuters.
“The goal is political competition between two superpowers — China and the USA — and a number of other countries which also want to claim the title of space superpower,” news agency Associated Press quoted popular Russian space analyst Vitaly Egorov as saying.