Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Factory floor integration of science instruments on Russia’s Luna-25 Moon lander.
Credit: Roscosmos

Russia’s Roscosmos continues to implement a national lunar program, planning to implement three lunar missions in the coming years:

• Luna-Glob (Luna-25)
• Luna-Resource-1 (Luna-26) with an orbital spacecraft
• Luna-Resurs-1” (“Luna-27) with a lander

“To date, the Luna-25 spacecraft, which is the first of the renewable domestic lunar program, is fully equipped with standard models of instruments and systems,” according to Roscosmos.

Credit: NPO Lavochkin

Dismantling of ESA’s Pilot-D

Given the recent decision by the European Space Agency (ESA) to no longer participate in Russia’s Luna program, “the dismantling of the Pilot-D device is planned to be carried out at the stage of assembly of the flight model,” Roscosmos has stated.

Credit: ESA

ESA’s Pilot-D camera was to image the lunar terrain, hardware built specifically for Luna-25’s Moon landing.

“The refusal of European partners to participate in cooperation on the Luna-25 project will not affect its implementation in any way,” Roscosmos explains.

Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Launch date?

Meanwhile, the launch date of Luna-25 is to be determined after testing.

Dmitry Rogozin, general director of Roscosmos, explains that the launch of the Luna-25 from the Vostochny cosmodrome can take place both earlier and later on August 22 reports RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned domestic news agency.

“So far, Lavochkin’s NPO has named this date. It could be earlier, maybe in September,” Rogozin told reporters at the Tsiolkovsky Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga.

Lunar hardware undergoes testing.
Credit: RSC Energia/Roscosmos

Rogozin clarified that only one very important test remained in the preparation schedule: a repeat test of a Doppler receiver. After all the necessary confirmations of the readiness of the device for launch are received, the specialists will determine the launch date.

No pressure

The general director of the state corporation also urged not to put pressure on the engineers preparing Luna-25 for launch, and to not demand a specific launch date from them.

Credit: NPO Lavochkin

Earlier, Alexander Mitkin, deputy general designer for electrical systems at NPO Lavochkin – the designer and builder of Luna-25 — said that the launch of the first domestic mission to the Moon in 46 years from the Vostochny cosmodrome is scheduled for August 22.

Later, Rogozin said that the launch was simply scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.