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Soyuz rocket with Luna-25 automatic probe installed on Vostochny spaceport’s launch pad

The launch of the carrier rocket with the automatic lunar station is scheduled for August 11

Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle. Vostochny spaceport Press service of Roscosmos Group/TASS

Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle. Vostochny spaceport

© Press service of Roscosmos Group/TASS

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Fregat booster and a Luna-25 probe has been installed on a launch pad of the Vostochny spaceport for Russia’s first automatic lunar mission in its modern history, the State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Tuesday.

"A Soyuz-2.1b space rocket with a Luna-25 automatic station has been taken to the launch pad of site 1S of the Vostochny spaceport today. After putting the rocket in its vertical position at the launch pad, Roscosmos specialists continued its preparation for launch," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Luna-25 automatic lunar station is scheduled for 2:10 a.m. Moscow time on August 11.

The Luna-25 automatic station is set to become the first domestic spacecraft in Russia’s modern history to travel to the Earth’s natural satellite. In July, the automatic station was delivered to the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East. The projects aims to send an automatic probe for studies in the Moon’s South Pole. The lander is expected to touch down in the area of the Boguslawsky crater.

The Roscosmos press office earlier reported that the mission’s launch had been rescheduled from July for August to achieve the desired reliability of the mission’s implementation.

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