Russia initiated a spacecraft on Friday that is headed to the moon — its first attempt since 1976, around when the Soviet Union and United States were in intense competition for space dominance during the Cold War.
Moscow is hoping to create history, in a race to be the first country to make a gentle landing on the moon's icy south pole.
The unmanned spacecraft, known as Luna-25, took off from the country's southeast at 2:11 a.m. local time, according to Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.
It will take just over five days for the vessel to travel to the moon's vicinity, Roscosmos said. Then it will spend several days orbiting before attempting the gentle landing on the lunar surface, north of the Boguslawsky crater, on Aug. 21, the agency said.
The timetable pits Russia in a race against India, which initiated a similar mission — the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander — last month and is aiming to gentle-land by Aug. 23. "We hope to be first," Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov reportedly said at the launch.
The move places Moscow into the uncommon and coveted geopolitical space of advanced lunar exploration, as it aims to join the United States and China in this expression of global power. (Attempts by Japan and Israel have failed in recent years.)
The moonshot, which Russia has been planning for decades, comes at a time when the Kremlin is facing international economic sanctions and a pariah status among much of the Western world for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia remains a key partner in the International Space Station, a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth that serves as a home for crews of astronauts from several nations. However, its aerospace sector has been hit by sanctions and limits on the use of Western-made technology, funding and research ties.
"Study of the moon is not the goal," Vitaly Egorov, a popular Russian space analyst and blogger, told the Associated Press about the launch. "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."
In 1957, Russia became the first nation to initiate a satellite into space with Sputnik 1, setting off a space race with the United States. By 1961, the Soviet Union had sent the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, aboard the Vostok 1, making a single orbit around Earth. But as geopolitical tensions grew, it was the United States that became the first nation to put a human on the moon, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in 1969. This was hailed as a decisive victory in the space race between the two superpowers that was an outgrowth of the Cold War, and the televised landing was watched by 723 million people globally.
Borisov, the director general of Roscosmos, hailed Friday's launch as a "new page" for Russian space exploration. "All the results of the research will be transferred to Earth," he said on state television. "We are interested in the presence of water, as well as many other experiments related to the study of the soil, the site." He noted that the mission is bound to face some "obstacles" along the way.
The Luna-25 lander has a four-legged base containing the landing rockets and propellant tanks, as well as an upper compartment holding solar panels, communications equipment, onboard computers and most of the scientific apparatus, according to NASA.
Its dry mass is about 800 kilograms (around 1,760 pounds) — roughly the same as a car trailer — and has a 1.6-meter-long (around 5-foot-3-inches) lunar robotic arm equipped with a scoop to remove and collect rocks, soil and dust as it aims to "study composition" of the south pole. If successful, the lander is expected to operate on the lunar surface for one year, Roscosmos said.
On Friday, Roscosmos said in a Telegram post, "the rocket worked normally, the upper stage separated from the third stage and is now putting the automatic station on a flight trajectory to the Moon!"
It added that the launch came after "long preparations" and "agonizing expectation."
The search for frozen water on the moon's south pole has sparked interest from many nations, including Russia and China. Water is crucial for sustaining life and can also be used to make air to breathe and elements for rocket fuel, making it a valuable resource for future space exploration.
Russia's space chief, Dmitry Borisov, announced plans for three more lunar launches between 2027 and 2030, with the goal of eventually conducting manned flights to the moon and constructing a lunar base. China has also set its sights on landing astronauts on the moon before 2030, setting up a new rivalry with the United States.
NASA, on the other hand, has its own ambitions of building a sustainable presence on the moon, particularly focusing on the lunar south pole. The agency recently awarded contracts to companies to develop technologies that would allow humans to live on the moon for extended periods.
However, a Pew Research poll conducted in July found that only 12 percent of adults in the United States believe returning astronauts to the moon should be NASA's top priority. Many Americans believe that NASA should focus on monitoring climate change and identifying potential asteroid threats to Earth.
The search for frozen water on the moon's south pole has become a significant point of interest due to its potential implications for future space exploration and commercial endeavors. As nations race to establish a presence on the moon, the quest for water and its utilization in various applications continues to drive their efforts forward.