Russia launches first moon probe in 47 years
Luna-25, made by Roscosmos from entirely domestic components, aims for the historic first polar lunarfall
ChinaGoSmart CGS 
Russia launches first moon probe in 47 years
The Roscosmos Luna-25 aims for a historic soft landing at the lunar south pole
The Russian space program has launched a probe to the moon for the first time since 1976. Luna-25 blasted off from the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region and is aiming to touch down in the southern polar region by August 21.
lost connection and crashed. The Chandrayaan-3 mission, launched in July, is already in lunar orbit and aims for a polar landing by August 23.
Though lagging behind the Soviets in orbital exploration, the US claimed the first manned landing on the moon, with Apollo 11 in July 1968. The Apollo program was discontinued in December 1972. The last Soviet lunar mission, Luna 24, returned samples of lunar soil to earth for study in August 1976.
