Russia launches lunar lander in race to find water on moon
Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice.
The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against #India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, and more broadly with the United States and #China, both of which have advanced lunar exploration programs targeting the lunar south pole.
A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 kimeters) east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. on Friday Moscow time (1111 GMT on Thursday).
