MOSCOW, Aug 16 The Russian spacecraft Luna-25 has successfully entered orbit near the Earth's satellite, Roskosmos reported.
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«For the first time in the modern history of Russia, an automatic station was launched into orbit as an artificial satellite of the Moon at 12:03 Moscow time,» the publication says.
The state corporation clarified that the maneuver was ensured by two engine starts. The first happened at 11:57 Moscow time and lasted 243 seconds, the specialists activated the corrective brake motor. The second was powered by soft landing engines and lasted 76 seconds.
All systems are working properly, communication with the device is stable.
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Automatic station «Luna-25» was created in the Scientific and Production Association named after S.A. Lavochkin. It should be the first spacecraft to land gently in the area of the South Pole of the Moon, where the complex terrain prevails. It is expected that this will happen on August 21.
The main goal of the mission is to examine the lunar soil for the presence of ice.
The Soyuz 2.1b rocket with the first domestic lunar station in almost 50 years was launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome at 02:11 Moscow time on August 11.