• Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft Luna-25 in 47 years on August 11.

• The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month.

• A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome on August 11.

• The lander is expected to touch down on the Moon on August 21.

• This endeavour places Russia in direct competition with India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which is also targeting the lunar South Pole and is due to land later in August.

• The timetable implies it could match or narrowly beat India’s Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon’s surface.

• Russian space agency Roscosmos said the two missions would not get in each other’s way because they have different landing areas planned.

Lunar South Pole

• Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, will aim to operate for a year on the Moon’s South Pole.

• The United States, China, India, Japan and the European Union have all been probing the moon in recent years. 

• A Japanese lunar landing failed last year and an Israeli mission failed in 2019.

• No country has made a soft-landing on the South Pole. 

• The Lunar South Pole remains much larger than that at the North Pole. There could be a possibility of presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.

• Rough terrain makes a landing there difficult.

India’s lunar exploration missions

• Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from Sriharikota to orbit the Moon. It played a crucial role in the discovery of water molecules on the Moon.

• Chandrayaan-2 mission was India’s first attempt to land on the lunar surface. It was launched on July 22, 2019. On September 7, Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander lost its contact with ISRO as it was only 2.1 km away from its designated landing spot on the Moon’s South Pole region. The lander Vikram made a hard landing on the lunar surface.

• Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. 

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its Chandrayaan-3 on July 14. 

• Through the Chandrayaan-3 mission, scientists are aiming at mastering the technology of soft-landing on the surface of the Moon. 

• The Lander is expected to soft-land on the surface of the Moon on August 23 or 24.

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