ISRO congratulates Roscosmos on launch of its Luna-25 Moon mission

Bengaluru: Russian space agency Roscosmos successfully launched Luna-25 on Friday, the nation's first lunar lander in 47 years, and ISRO congratulated Roscosmos on the accomplishment.

The Russian mission and India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar spacecraft both aim to touch down on the Moon's surface on August 23.

Both Russia and India want to be the first nation to land on the Moon's south pole.

"Congratulations, Roscosmos on the successful launch of Luna-25. Wonderful to have another meeting point in our space journies. Wishes for (India's) Chandrayaan-3 & (Russia's) Luna-25 missions to achieve their goals," ISRO said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Russian spacecraft launched early on Friday morning (IST) will take about 5.5 days to travel to the Moon's vicinity. Luna-25 is reportedly expected to first enter an orbit around the Earth before transferring to a lunar orbit and finally descending on the surface of the Moon.

Only three countries have managed successful landings on the Moon: the former Soviet Union, the United States and China.

With PTI inputs