The launch of the Luna-26 orbital station, which should become the next stage of the Russian lunar program, has been postponed from 2027 to 2028, said on August 8, in an interview with Izvestia the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Gennady Krasnikov. He specified that the device will identify suitable landing sites for future missions. After that, the Luna-27.1 and Luna-27.2 modules will be sent to the South and North Poles of the Earth’s satellite.
Scientific software
This is expected to happen in 2029 and 2030 – also a year later than the planned dates.
According to Igor Mitrofanov, head of the nuclear planetology department at the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the postponement became inevitable after the Luna-25 disaster in August 2023. Then the device, which was supposed to carry out the first lunar mission in the history of modern Russia, crashed during landing, after which the head of Roscosmos promised President Vladimir Putin to try to carry out the next launch in 2026.
Mitrofanov noted that the desire for quick rehabilitation “was the first emotional reaction,” but then “it became clear that many of the on-board systems of the lost spacecraft could not be restored, since imported Western components were used,” which are no longer available due to sanctions.
In fact, Luna-26 had to be designed from scratch, which led to a shift in the deadlines, he added.
Roscosmos has postponed the launch of Luna-25 at least nine times. It was originally planned for 2014.
Photo: Igor Mitrofanov. MIPT Center of Science and Technology; en.wikipedia.org
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First published in this link of The European Times.