VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME (Amur region), 11 Aug. The Soyuz 2.1b rocket with the first domestic automatic station Luna-25 in almost 50 years was launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome, a correspondent reports.
Nine minutes after the launch, the Fregat upper stage with the station will separate from the third stage of the rocket. He will turn on his main engine twice and send the device on a flight trajectory to the moon.
The second stage, after the separation of the upper stage from the station, will be the flight of «Luna-25» to the Earth's natural satellite, which will take about five days. Two corrections of the station's flight trajectory are planned: the first — 1.5 days after launch, the second — a day before entering orbit around the Moon.
With the station braking with the help of the propulsion system, the third stage will begin — a flight around the Moon in a circular circumpolar orbit with a height of 100 kilometers, which will last for three days.
At the fourth stage, Luna-25 will switch to an elliptical landing orbit with a minimum altitude of 18 kilometers. Finally, after performing the calculations, a soft landing should occur in the region of the South Pole of the Moon. Tentatively, it should take place on August 21.
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Estimated operating time of Luna-25 is one Earth year. The station will have to work out the technology of soft landing, take and analyze the soil and conduct long-term scientific research, including the study of the upper layer of the surface regolith in the region of the South Pole of the Moon, as well as the lunar exosphere.
Luna-25 is to become the first station in world history to make a soft landing in the circumpolar region with difficult terrain. All her predecessors landed in the equatorial zone.
The previous domestic station, «Luna-24», was sent in 1976.
The launch is broadcast by Roskosmos and RT in Russian.