Russia to launch its 1st modern moon mission on July 13

MOSCOW

Russia plans to launch its first lunar space mission in modern times on July 13, state corporation Roscosmos announced on Thursday.

"The launch of the Luna-25 spacecraft is scheduled for 13.07.2023, taking into account the astronomical 'window' in 2023," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The unmanned mission had originally been planned for 2022 but was postponed due to technical reasons.

Roscosmos hopes to land the Luna-25, the first domestically produced spacecraft of this type in post-Soviet Russia, on the surface of Earth's satellite.

The purpose of the project is to send an robotic probe to conduct research near the Moon's south pole.