Russia postpones lunar mission

MOSCOW: Russia revealed on Tuesday it postponed its first mission to the moon’s surface in decades as a result of "problems" encountered during tests of the Luna-25 spacecraft.

The country’s space agency Roscosmos announced last week that the mission -- originally scheduled for October 1 -- from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East had been moved to May 2022.

The Luna-25 mission to the Moon’s south pole aims to probe ice deposits there. It is set to be Russia’s first mission to the moon’s surface in 45 years and the first in its post-Soviet history.