'Wishes for Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25 missions to achieve their goals': ISRO congratulates Russia

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate its Russian counterpart Roscosmos for the successful launch of Luna-25, Russia's moon mission.

The Russian lander is expected to touch down on the moon on August 21. Meanwhile, India's thrid lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which was launched on July 14 by ISRO, is scheduled for a soft landing on the lunar surface on August 23.

"Congratulations, Roscosmos on the successful launch of Luna-25. Wonderful to have another meeting point in our space journeys. Wishes for Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25 missions to achieve their goals," ISRO wrote.

Russia's moon mission

Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice.

A Soyuz 2.1v rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 kilometres) east of Moscow, at 2:11 am on Friday Moscow time, with its upper stage boosting the lander out of Earth's orbit toward the moon over an hour later, Russia's space agency Roscosmos confirmed.

The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on August 21, Russia's space chief Yuri Borisov told Interfax on Friday. Roscosmos previously pegged August 23 as the landing date, the same as that of Chandrayaan-3.

Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, will aim to operate for a year on the moon's south pole, where scientists at NASA and other space agencies in recent years have detected traces of water ice in the region's shadowed craters.

With a mass of 1.8 tons and carrying 31 kilograms (68 pounds) of scientific equipment, Luna-25 will use a scoop to take rock samples from a depth of up to 15 centimetres (6 inches) to test for the presence of frozen water.

(With Reuters inputs)

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