After a number of setbacks, Russia announced on Monday that it will attempt to send a lunar lander into space this week to make its first trip back to the Moon in almost fifty years.
The launch, which is set for Friday morning, comes as Russia's offensive in Ukraine enters its second year, inciting severe friction with the West.
With the Luna-25 lander, the nation's first since 1976, Moscow is anxious to resume and build upon an innovative lunar program from the Soviet era.
As per the Russian space agency, a Soyuz rocket had been developed for the Luna-25 launch at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East.
"The launch is on August 11," Roscosmos said in a statement.
"The Luna-25 will have to practice soft landing, take and analyze soil samples, and conduct long-term scientific research," the statement added.
The four-legged, 800-kg lander is expected to settle at some distance from the lunar South Pole. Conversely, landings on the Moon often take place close to the equator.
The launch, which is the first mission of Moscow's new lunar program, takes place as Russia seeks to increase its space collaboration with China in the wake of strained relations with the West.
The European Space Agency (ESA) declared it will not work with Moscow on the upcoming Luna-25 launch as well as scheduled 26 and 27 missions after President Vladimir Putin committed troops to Ukraine last year.
Moscow declared at the time that it would still move forward with its lunar objectives despite the withdrawal and swap out ESA equipment for Russian-made research gear.
In a speech given a year ago at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Putin said that despite "total" sanctions, the Soviet Union sent the first human into space in 1961.
He stressed that regardless of current Western restrictions, Moscow would advance its lunar program.
"We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside," Putin said at the time.
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