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Launch of Russia’s Luna-25 automatic station to Moon rescheduled for 2022

The station will become the first domestic spacecraft in the country’s modern history on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite

Luna-25 automatic inter-planetary station Sergey Bobylev/TASS

Luna-25 automatic inter-planetary station

© Sergey Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The launch of the Russian Luna-25 automatic station to Earth’s natural satellite has been rescheduled for May 2022, the press office of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Friday.

"The launch of the Luna-25 automatic inter-planetary station from the Vostochny Cosmodrome has been specified and scheduled for the second possible ‘launch window’ (the period when a spacecraft launched from Earth will reach its destination point optimally and along the designated flight path, considering its design specifics and power supply capacity) in May 2022," Roscosmos said.

Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin told TASS in early June that a final decision on the timeframe for the launch of the mission to the Moon would be made in August. February and May were the ‘launch windows’ in 2022. However, the February ‘launch window’ was not considered as it required complex orbital "maneuvers," the Roscosmos chief said.

The launch of the Luna-25 mission was earlier scheduled for October 2021. The Luna-25 will become the first domestic spacecraft in the country’s modern history on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite. The press office of Russia’s Lavochkin Research and Production Association earlier told TASS that the Luna-25 spacecraft would be made and its tests would be completed in the summer of 2021.

Russia also intends to launch its Luna-26 mission in 2024, Luna-27 in 2025 and Luna-28 in 2027-2028.

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