Russia's Luna-25 Flags Off Space Race With India's Chandrayaan-3 To Moon's South Pole

Russia is gearing up to launch a lunar mission — the country's first lunar landing craft in nearly five decades — that will flag off a space race with India's Chandrayaan-3 to be the first to reach the moon's south pole this month.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said the launch of the Luna-25 spacecraft is scheduled for Friday from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles east of Moscow.

The launch comes weeks after India's July 14 launch of the Chandrayaan-3, which successfully entered the moon's orbit last weekend and is preparing to make a soft landing on the moon's south pole on Aug. 23.

The launch of the Luna-25 will be Russia's first lunar mission since 1976 and was initially planned for October 2021. However, it was delayed.

The Luna-25 spacecraft, after its lift-off this week, is expected to spend five days flying to the moon and then spend another five to seven days in lunar orbit. It will descend on one of three possible landing sites near the south pole.

The little-explored south pole of the moon holds significant interest because the area is believed to be a potential source of water and could support life. However, the rough terrain could pose landing challenges for both the Luna-25 and Chandrayaan-3.

If the Luna-25 mission goes according to Roscosmos' plan, the spacecraft could touch down on the moon's south pole around the same time as Chandrayaan-3 or even before.

"This is clearly to ensure that India, a closer ally of the USA nowadays, does not have the upper hand," leading Indian astrophysicist Sandip Chakrabarti told International Business Times. "This is very unfortunate and any progressive and scientific body should take note of the past history of the USSR while doing collaborative activities with Russia."

"Ever since space race began, USSR/Russia has been known to break trust," he added.

Chakrabarti pointed out that the former Soviet Union had pulled a similar move on the U.S. while the latter was preparing to launch the earth's first artificial satellite during the International Geophysical Year, which ran from July 1, 1957, to Dec. 31, 1958.

The U.S. was caught off-guard when the Soviet Union rocketed Sputnik into space on Oct. 4, 1957, and claimed the title of being the first nation to send an artificial satellite out of the Earth.

"Little did the USA know that Russia would send Sputnik-1 completely keeping the USA dark," Chakrabarti said. "Eventually, the USA also sent an Explorer-1 satellite by the end of 1958, within IGY and discovered the Van Allen radiation belts. So the USA won from the scientific point of view, while the USSR won from a technological point of view."

Chakrabarti believes India would have planned to land at least a day earlier if they knew about Russia's plans.

"Even now it could be possible, but the landing location must be sun-lit," he added.

Roscosmos said Russia's lunar mission would not get in the way of India's mission because they have chosen different landing areas.

"There is no danger that they interfere with each other or collide. There is enough space for everyone on the moon," the Russian space agency told Reuters.