Luna 25 will spend three to seven days traveling around 100 kilometers above the lunar surface.

The country's first lunar mission in 47 years, Luna 25, was launched by Russia on Friday. The Russian news source TASS stated that Luna-25 launched from the Vostochny launch complex in the country's Far East.

Luna 25 took off at 8:10 a.m. (local time) on Friday after being launched by a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket, according to CNN. Approximately 564 seconds after launch, the Fregat booster separated from the rocket's third stage, TASS said. After the launch, the Luna-25 spacecraft will disentangle from the launcher in about an hour. It may take as long as 5.5 days to travel to the moon.

Before arriving at the area surrounding the Boguslawsky crater, the spacecraft will spend three to seven days traveling about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface. Other potential landing sites are Manzinus and Pentland-A craters.

The mission's main objective is to perfect the soft landing technology. According to TASS, the mission may become the first ever for a spacecraft to reach the natural satellite of Earth's South Pole.

In addition to examining the impacts of space radiation and electromagnetic emissions on the lunar surface, the spacecraft will search for natural resources, including water. Luna 25, also known as the Luna-Glob-Lander, is a spacecraft that will spend a year analyzing the lunar exosphere, which is the moon's thin atmosphere, as well as the plasma and dust that are found there.

The lander is equipped with a number of cameras that will record timelapse footage of the landing and an HDR wide-angle photograph of the lunar landscape. According to TASS, Luna-25 will rotate its cameras at predetermined intervals and in response to an Earth signal.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stated in the statement, "The lander has a four-legged base containing the landing rockets and propellant tanks, and an upper compartment holds the solar panels, communication equipment, on-board computers, and most of the science apparatus."

The lander contains a 1.6 meter-long Lunar Robotic Arm (LRA, or Lunar Manipulator Complex), which NASA claims can be used to remove and collect surface regolith down to depths of 20 to 30 cm. The LRA comes with a scoop (175 cubic cm volume) and a 4.7 cm long tube with a 1.25 cm internal diameter as a sample collecting equipment.

As Europe and America try to isolate Russia in the midst of the Ukraine War and as Russia tries to improve its political and economic relations with non-Western nations in retaliation, it is closely observed on a global scale.