MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The launch of the first Russian spacecraft to the Moon after a 45-year hiatus is planned for 1 October 2021, a Russian space scientist announced at a meeting of the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The last Soviet interplanetary automatic station was Luna-24, launched in 1976. Russia in its history has not yet sent a spacecraft to the moon.
According to Mitrofanov, two Moon regions were selected for landing in the vicinity of the lunar south pole.
Previously, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said that the Luna-26 spacecraft would fly to the Moon in 2024 to map and remotely study its surface. The obtained data will help determine the composition of the lunar surface.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
