Russia launches moon lander in race to find water on moon

Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years in a bid to be the first power to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted deposits of ice water.

A Soyuz 2.1v rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. local time on Friday.

The lander is due to touch down on the moon on Aug. 23, Russia’s space agency said.

The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which sent up its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, and more broadly with the United States and China, which both have advanced lunar exploration programs.

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