Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Russia’s return-to-the-Moon Lunar-25 hardware undergoes testing.
Image credit: Roscosmos

Russia’s renewed robotic Moon effort — Luna-25 – has slipped to August 2023.

According to Russia’s Roscosmos and NPO Lavochkin, developer of the lunar lander, the craft is undergoing a final cycle of ground tests. Part of that testing is statistical modeling of the key stage of the mission — a soft landing on the lunar surface – and is being completed at the onboard control complex test bench.

Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft.
Credit: Lavochkin/Roscosmos

“Domestic experience and the experience of a number of other countries that landed on the lunar surface shows that this stage, taking into account the complexity of the tasks of ballistic and navigation support for the flight of a spacecraft, is critical for the success of the entire mission as a whole,” a Roscosmos and Lavochkin communiqué explains.

Considered expedient

Luna-25 is to land in the vicinity of the south pole of the Moon.

Topographic map of the southern sub-polar region of the Moon showing the location of Boguslawsky crater.
Credit: Ivanov et al., 2015 via Arizona State University/LROC

In order to achieve the required reliability of the mission “it is necessary to carry out additional measures” to ensure the stable operation of ground controls during the stages of corrections and landing on the Moon’s surface.

Bottom line, and based on the need for more testing, it was “considered expedient” to launch the Luna-25 spacecraft in August 2023.

This Russian Moon mission continues the series of the former Soviet Union’s lunar exploration activities that ended back in 1976. Luna-24 successfully delivered about 170 grams of lunar soil to Earth.

The Luna-25 mission has undergone slip after slip for a lengthy period of time.