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Russia’s first lunar mission postponed to 2023 — Roscosmos

The project is targeted to the south polar region of the Moon

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

Luna-25 automatic inter-planetary station

© Sergey Bobylev/TASS

VLADIVOSTOK, September 7. /TASS/. The launch of the Luna 25 mission, first ever to the Moon in recent Russian history, has been delayed till next year, Roscomos Director General Yury Borisov said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, yes," he said, when asked if the mission had been pushed back to next year.

The Doppler speed and distance sensor made by the Vega Concern owned by the Rostech State Corporation, that could guarantee a soft landing, underperformed in terms of measurement precision, a source in the space industry told TASS in July. The launch will likely be postponed until 2023, the source added.

Luna 25 is to become the first mission in Russia’s recent history to land on the Moon. Speaking at the New Horizons education marathon of the Znanie (Knowledge) society, Dmitry Rogozin, Roscosmos’s previous CEO, said that the lunar mission was scheduled to launch before the end of September. The state-run corporation said later that Luna 25 had successfully passed thermal vacuum tests at a research center near Moscow.

The project is targeted to the south polar region of the Moon. The lander is to touch the Moon’s surface near crater Boguslawsky.

Organized by the Roscongress Foundation, the Seventh Eastern Economic Forum will be running from September 5 to September 8 in Vladivostok. TASS is the event’s general information partner and its official photohost agency.

This year, the theme of the forum is: "On the Path to a Multipolar World."

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