[1/2] A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage and the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, August 11, 2023.
The Luna-25 entered the moon's orbit at 11:57 a.m. (0857 GMT), Russia's space corporate Roskosmos said.
India's Chandrayaan-3 entered the moon's orbit earlier this month ahead of a planned touchdown on the south pole of the moon later this month.
No Russian spacecraft has entered lunar orbit since Luna-24, the Soviet Union's 1976 moon mission, according to Anatoly Zak, the creator and publisher of www.RussianSpaceWeb.com which tracks Russian space programmes.
"Entering lunar orbit is absolutely critical for the success of this project," Zak told Reuters.
Persons:
Luna, India's, Anatoly Zak, Zak, Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Cawthorne, Bernadette Baum
Organizations:
2.1b, Vostochny, REUTERS, Rights, NASA, Thomson
Locations:
Amur, Russia, Soviet