Russia is to launch its first mission to the moon in almost 50 years

Luna 25 is a Russian lunar lander mission that hopes to reach the moon’s surface at the same time as an Indian mission launched at the beginning of July (Roscosmos State Space Corporation/AP)

Russia is scheduled to launch its first mission to the moon in nearly 50 years on Friday, racing to land on the lunar south pole before a spacecraft from India gets there.

The launch of the Luna-25 craft to the moon will be Russia’s first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union and will be conducted without assistance from the European Space Agency, which ended co-operation with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.