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Moon Space

Russia's Luna 25 Mission Launches To the Moon (cnn.com) 60

Russia has successfully launched Luna 25, the country's first lunar lander in 47 years. From a report: The uncrewed spacecraft lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast, Russia. Hitching a ride aboard a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket, Luna 25 took flight at 8:10 a.m. local time Friday, or 7:10 p.m. ET Thursday. Residents of a Russian village were temporarily evacuated Friday morning since there is a "one in a million chance" that one of Luna 25's rocket stages could fall there, according to Reuters.

The spacecraft is expected to first enter an orbit around Earth before transferring to a lunar orbit and ultimately descending to the surface of the moon. Russia's last lunar lander, Luna 24, landed on the moon on August 18, 1976. Luna 25 and India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, which launched in mid-July, are both expected to land at the lunar south pole on August 23, and it's a race to see which country will land first, according to Reuters. But Roscomos said the two missions are not expected to cause a problem for each other because their specific landing zones differ, Reuters reported.

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Russia's Luna 25 Mission Launches To the Moon

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    You've got to ask why bother? I know of course it's so that Russia appears to be "business as usual" and "still a super power" and all that, but my god, haven't we all seen through that charade by now?

    What was the joke about the Russian military? 2021 - Second best army in the world. 2022 - Second best army in Ukraine. 2023 - second best army in Russia. They've got a whole load of rich people who can't travel anywhere, they've got poor people getting decidedly poorer and they're cosying up to world leading

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's a reminder that Russia can place quite a lot of mass anywhere it likes with a good level of precision, i.e. nuclear warheads.

      • But Russia already puts significant mass in orbit every year. That capability has long since been demonstrated. This is a silly motive to attribute for rekindling their deep space exploration program.
        • Domestic propaganda - "See, we're still one of the top dogs, ignore the economy and our brutal unprovoked invasion of our neighbours requiring the blood of your sons".

        • Residents of a Russian village were temporarily evacuated Friday morning since there is a "one in a million chance" that one of Luna 25's rocket stages could fall there, according to Reuters.

          The rocket stage was later reported to have hit an orphanage in Kyiv. Izvini, moya oshibka.

      • Yes and it seems like a perfect opportunity to test out some interceptors.

      • by Kazymyr ( 190114 )

        I for one hope that this one actually reaches the Moon and not Kyiv.

      • Seriously? Dare ya.

        They've been trying to scare the world with their nukes one time too many. Nobody takes their empty threats serious anymore.

      • If anyone is interested, Scott Manley just put up an interesting video [youtube.com] on the background and delays of this mission.
      • Well, damn. [twitter.com] (Excerpt from Rogozin)

        A dual-purpose project with a powerful defense potential. I hope that the SO proved to the financial and economic bloc of the government that ours, and not his, was right in this matter. In the meantime, we are waiting for the landing of Luna-25 and support

    • by qaz123 ( 2841887 )

      I know of course it's so that Russia appears to be "business as usual" and "still a super power"

      They started preparing this mission in 2013. Why? Because there is still science in Russia

      • They started preparing this mission in 2013. Why? Because there is still science in Russia

        Was. What was left either got embezzled, fled the country, or died in the fields of Ukraine.

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Friday August 11, 2023 @10:25AM (#63759056)

      The main issue is not Russia is incapable of things like a good space program or a decent military. The issue I see is that things like corruption and dishonesty are rampant and ingrained in Russia. On paper, Russia's military would be a far better military had they maintained their equipment and readiness. But being Russia, things like fuel and tires were pilfered from stockpiles long ago because everyone in the theft assumed supplies not be missed.

      It seems senior military leaders even the intelligence agencies were flat out lying about both Ukraine and their own military assessment. That dishonesty extended to the entire "special operation" as the leaders told some of the troops they were participating in exercises in Belarus or Russia. As expected troops were not prepared for extended combat.

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Friday August 11, 2023 @11:39AM (#63759356) Journal
        The issue I see is that things like corruption and dishonesty are rampant and ingrained in Russia.

        This was from last year [youtube.com], but it shows Ukrainian soldiers opening brand new bricks of Russian explosives and finding they are wooden bricks.

        Just yesterday I saw a video posted by a Russian soldier where he opens an unopened ration can which had a date of 2019 to find some oily liquid and what looks what could be bits of meat inside the can he is supposed to eat.

        So yeah, corruption is endemic in Russia.
        • Corruption, there is a black hole in the US military bugdet that is so big its more than the GDP of most countries of the world, corruption is not the exclusive domain to the Russians.

          • Corruption, there is a black hole in the US military bugdet that is so big its more than the GDP of most countries of the world, corruption is not the exclusive domain to the Russians.

            I would assume the black hole is about hiding how much the US military is spending on black ops top secret projects the government will not even acknowledge. Does corruption happen in countires? Sure. But the Ukraine war exposed the amount of corruption that exists in Russia. The cited examples above would have been detected eventually but were prominent when the supplies were needed in a war.

  • Powered by (Score:4, Funny)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday August 11, 2023 @07:50AM (#63758618)

    Kerosene, germanium transistors, and vacuum tubes.

  • https://old.reddit.com/r/Ukrai... [reddit.com]

    Fuck them all. It's no longer just Putin.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by qaz123 ( 2841887 )
      do you think 1300 NATO missiles falling in Belgrade in 1999 looked different?
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        So, you are fan of the ethnic cleansing the NATO involvement stopped?

        By the end of the war, the Yugoslavs had killed 1,500 to 2,131 combatants.10,317 civilians were killed or missing, with 85% of those being Kosovar Albanian and some 848,000 were expelled from Kosovo

        • Your numbers are off by a few zeros at the end.
          Or did you plan to put an M and forgot about that?

          Wikipedia talks about something around 150,000 dead. And about 4 million displaced.

          • by qaz123 ( 2841887 )
            Western atrocity propaganda (or Albanian). Also, Wikipedia is especially unreliable source on history and politics
            • Actually Wikipedia is a very reliable source.
              Especially on: History.
              And especially on: politics.

              But you can go and fake your won wikipedia page about what ever you want. It is your time that you waste.

          • by qaz123 ( 2841887 )
            The whole Kosovo population is less than 2 millions
            • The war spanned 10 countries? Or 1? I forgot.

              • by qaz123 ( 2841887 )
                The NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999 were because of Kosovo
                • The NATO ended the war.

                  When we talk about the "Yugoslavian war", we mean Serbia attacking everything around them, and then Kroatia going similar mad. Oh, I would not wonder if Kroatia started it and then Serbia went similar mad ...

                  Who cares? The settlement politics of that old Serbian guy - what as his name? - did not work.

                  Being 50 years communist, and then turning out to be flat out Nazis ... everyone ... seems kind of hell. They are still Nazis and racists, but don't kill each other at the moment ...

                  Lets

      • What neighbor did Ukraine attack to deserve a bombardment again?

  • Russia often chooses locations based on transportation infrastructure rather than the most convenient geographical location. I would presume a launch site on the Pacific would be advantageous for the same reason Eastern Seaboard sites are for the US - sites in Virginia and Florida are noted, but when Russia chose to build a new site they chose something significantly inland in the Amur Oblast where a huge swathe of Pacific coast was avaialble to them.

    I've flown over Siberia quite a bit, it's about as virgi

  • Is it going to de-Nazify the moon too?

  • A man bursts into the politbureau meeting: "Comrades! The Russians are on the moon!"

    A hopeful voice in the back: "All of them?"

  • Nobody would say the donation is bad, but it doesn't change a thing about the hole you've dug for yourself in the world.
  • Will likely miss it's mark and end up in a years long decaying orbit before it crashes.

In case of injury notify your superior immediately. He'll kiss it and make it better.

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