The three-stage rocket has taken flight on three previous occasions, but today’s launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region marks an important first, as Russia seeks to modernize its space program and keep pace with the rest of the world.
Thomas Pesquet/ESA via NASA
NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA/Steve Seipel; China National Space Administration; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University; Insider
NASA
Russia has successfully launched its Luna-25 mission to the Moon, which will attempt to land on the lunar south pole later this month. If it sticks the landing, Russia will become the first country to pull off a soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon.