Russia's Luna-25 moon lander snaps 1st pictures from space.

Images of Earth (left) and the moon (right) taken by the Luna-25 spacecraft during its flight to the moon on August 13, 2023, from a distance of about 192,625 miles (310,000 km) from Earth. (Image credit: IKI RAS)

Russia's first lunar lander since 1976 has beamed back its first images from space.

The Luna-25 mission lifted off on Aug. 10 atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur Region, marking the first domestically produced probe sent to the moon in modern Russian history. The last moon mission from what is now Russia, Luna-24, took off in 1976 and returned about 6.2 ounces (170 grams) of lunar samples. The launch of Luna-25 faced multiple delays due in part to Russia's war on Ukraine, which has had wide-ranging effects on international spaceflight cooperation.

Luna-25's first images were taken on Sunday (Aug. 13) and published Monday (Aug. 14) by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS). The black-and-white photo collection shows the Russian flag and mission patch on the spacecraft's structure alongside images of Earth and the moon shining bright against the blackness of space. .

Source: www.space.com

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