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Russia Speeding To Moon In Space Race

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW (Worthy News) – Russia sped up a space race Friday as it tried to reach the moon after nearly half a century ahead of an Indian spacecraft.

The launch from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of the Luna-25 craft to the Earth’s shiny satellite was also seen as a signal by Moscow that it is still prominent in space despite Western sanctions.

Russia’s first moon mission since 1976, when it was part of the Soviet Union, comes amid international efforts to establish a permanent human base on the moon.

Moscow also plans to make Russia the first country to reach the prestigious south pole of the moon as a symbolic moment for a government anxious to prove it still has the technological capabilities befitting a great world power.

Experts say the moon’s south pole is particularly interesting to scientists because of water ice in permanently shadowed areas, which could sustain astronauts and provide the fuel rockets would need.

The lunar south pole region features craters that are near-constant sunlight that does not reach their interior, making it more suitable for a permanent base.

Additionally, Russia views a possible permanent presence on the moon as part of broader international efforts to reach planet Mars, the next stop on its space agenda.

REACHING MOON

The Russian lunar lander was due to reach the moon’s south pole on August 23, about the same day an Indian craft launched on July 14 may touch down there.

The Russian spacecraft will take about 5.5 days to travel to the moon’s vicinity. It will then spend three to seven days orbiting at about 100 kilometers (62 miles) before heading for the surface, according to experts familiar with the mission.

Only three governments have managed successful moon landings: the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. While the U.S. was claiming to be the first nation with humans on the moon, India and Russia were racing to be the first to land at the moon’s south pole.

Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, said it wants to show Russia “is a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon” and “ensure Russia’s guaranteed access to the moon’s surface.”

With different powers now racing to be the first, the moon appears to become the next battleground between nations already fighting (proxy) wars on Earth, including over Ukraine.

“Study of the moon is not the goal,” said Vitaly Egorov, a popular Russian space analyst, in comments published by the New York Post newspaper. “The goal is political competition between two superpowers — China and the USA — and several other countries which also want to claim the title of space superpower.”

Russia also seeks closer cooperation with China in space after losing vital Western technologies due to sanctions, experts said.

SPACE SECTOR

The mission is important for the Russian space sector, which has suffered from funding problems, corruption scandals, and increasing competition from the United States as well as ally China.

Russia also competes against private initiatives such as billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which launched its first tourist passengers into the weightlessness of space Thursday, the culmination of a nearly two-decade commercial pursuit, and billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to continue his nation’s space program despite sanctions, pointing to the USSR’s sending of the first man into space in 1961 at a time of escalating East-West tensions.

“We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite difficulties and external attempts to prevent us from doing so,” Putin said at the Vostochny Cosmodrome last year.

But the mission is “risky,” Roscosmos’ chief Yuri Borisov admitted. “The chance of success of these missions is estimated at around 70 percent,” he told Putin recently.

Following Friday’s launch, the rocket’s boosters fell as expected 28 kilometers (17. 3 miles) from the village of Shakhtinsky in the far-eastern region of Khabarovsk, regional governor Mikhail Degtiariov said on social media.

He said village residents had been evacuated before the launch but had since been able to return.