Russia Launches Lunar Lander Hoping for First Successful Extra-Earth Orbit Mission In Nearly 50 Years

Amaze Lab

There’s another space race heating up and it’s once again a race involving Russia and the Moon. They haven’t landed anything there for nearly 50 years, but recently Russia launched a Soyuz rocket carrying with it the Luna-25 Moon lander.

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00:00 There's another space race heating up, and it's once again a race involving Russia and

00:08 the moon.

00:09 They haven't landed anything there for nearly 50 years, but recently Russia launched a Soyuz

00:13 rocket carrying with it the Luna 25 moon lander.

00:17 It's expected to spend more than a week in transit, making the nearly 240,000 mile journey

00:22 to Earth's only natural satellite.

00:24 It is expected to eventually set down on the southern pole of the lunar surface on August

00:28 23rd.

00:29 So why the seemingly sudden trip?

00:31 Well, experts believe there's likely water there, a valuable resource for any nation

00:35 looking to set up a moon base.

00:37 If they make it there, this would be Russia's first successful extra-Earth orbit launch

00:41 since the fall of the Soviet Union.

00:43 Two other attempts have been made since then, both set to make a transit to Mars and its

00:47 moon Phobos.

00:48 However, both were unsuccessful and became stuck in Earth's orbit.

00:52 The Luna 25 lander was also set to have European-manufactured instrumentation, but after Putin's army invaded

00:58 Ukraine last year, it was no longer made available, meaning they had to produce their own in short

01:02 order.

01:03 India also has a lunar lander in transit and is expected to land on the same day in the

01:08 same region as Russia's.

01:10 -END-

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