The first moon landing mission in Russia's post-Soviet history will be accompanied by an evacuation of a village where rocket boosters are expected to fall this week, a local officialsaid Monday.The Luna-25 lunar lander isscheduled to launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East at 23:10 GMT on Friday, Aug.
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It will be Russias first lander since 1976 and the first research station to land on the moons south pole.Travel to the drop zone of the [Soyuz-2 Fregat] launch vehicles first stage is prohibited, warned Alexei Maslov, the head of the Khabarovsk regions Verkhnebureinskyi district, located some 300 kilometers east of the Luna-25 launch site in the Amur region.The population of Verkhnebureinskyi district is listed at 25,000.Maslov, writing on the Telegrammessaging app, said residents of the village of Shakhtinsk which has an estimated population of 27 people as of 2021 will be evacuated around the time of the launch.He did not say when the villagers would be allowed to return home.Russias state-run news agency RIA Novostireported that Saturday at 23:35 GMT was reserved as a backup launch time.Luna-25s one-year missionincludes exploring for resources such as water, research of the moons internal structure and the development of soft-landing technologies.