Russia’s Luna-25 probe enters Moon orbit

MOSCOW: Moscow´s Luna-25 lander was successfully placed in the Moon´s orbit on Wednesday, the first such Russian mission in almost 50 years, space agency Roscosmos announced.

With the lunar launch, Moscow´s first since 1976, Russia is seeking to restart and rebuild on the Soviet Union´s pioneering space programme. “For the first time in Russia´s contemporary history, an automatic station was placed in lunar orbit at 12:03 pm Moscow time (0903 GMT),” a Roscosmos spokesperson told AFP.

The probe will orbit 100-km above the Moon´s surface, before a planned landing Monday north of the Boguslawsky crater on the lunar south pole. “All the ´Luna-25´ systems are operating normally, and communication with it is stable,” the spokesperson said. Cameras installed on the lander have already taken distant shots of the Earth and Moon from space.