REUTERS/Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool/File PhotoAug 7 (Reuters) - Russia will evacuate a village in its far east on Aug. 11 as part of the launch of Russia's first lunar lander mission in nearly half a century, a local official said on Monday.
The Luna-25 lunar lander, Russia's first since 1976, will be launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, some 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, according to Russia's Roscosmos space agency.
Luna-25 will launch on a Soyuz-2 Fregat booster and will be the first lander to arrive on the South Pole of the moon, Roscosmos has said.
The lander is expected to operate on the lunar surface for one year.
Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons:
Kirill Kudryavtsev, Luna, Russia's, Alexei Maslov, Roscosmos, Lidia Kelly, Gerry Doyle
Organizations:
Russian Soyuz, REUTERS, Vostochny, Thomson
Locations:
Russian, Lomonosov, cosmodrome, Uglegorsk, Blagoveshchensk, Amur, Russia, Moscow, Russia's Khabarovsk, Verkhnebureinskyi, Khabarovsk, Shakhtinskyi, Melbourne