According to Sergey Chernyshev, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the launch of Russia's Luna-26 mission has been postponed from 2027 to 2028. The timelines for other lunar missions have also been shifted: Luna-27/1 and Luna-27/2 are now planned for 2029 and 2030, while Luna-28 is scheduled for 2036.

Initially, Roscosmos had aimed to launch Luna-26 as early as 2023 and Luna-27 in 2024, but these deadlines have been revised multiple times. The most recent mission, Luna-25, was launched in 2023 after nine delays but ended in failure when the spacecraft crashed into the lunar surface.

Despite this setback, Russia's lunar program continues. It consists of two phases: first, the development of landing and research technologies, followed by the creation of elements for a lunar base. The immediate task involves selecting landing sites for future missions.

Under the program, landing modules are planned to be sent to the lunar poles in 2029–2030, with the Luna-29 orbital station set for launch in 2032 and the Luna-30 mission featuring a heavy lunar rover scheduled for 2034. The total funding for the 'Cosmos' project is estimated at 4.4 trillion rubles until 2036.

Experts note that Russia already lags behind China and India in the lunar race and has partially lost competencies that now need to be restored.

Source: kun.uz