Russia delays lunar missions as US marks historic flight

MOSCOW, April 7 (Reuters) - ‌Russia has ​pushed ​back the launch of three moon missions, the Interfax news agency said on Tuesday, a ‌setback to its ambitious lunar exploration programme ⁠as longtime space rival, the United States, celebrated an historic ‌flight around the moon.

The launches ‌of Russian spacecraft Luna-28, Luna-29, and Luna-30 have been postponed to 2032–2036, Interfax quoted Russian Academy of ​Sciences Vice President Sergei Chernyshev as saying.

It did not say when they had originally been slated ⁠to lift off, but the unexplained delays follow postponements last year to ​other Russian lunar and space missions and the crash of its unmanned Luna-25 craft ​into the surface of the ‌moon in 2023.

Russia sees lunar exploration as vital to its national interests, the head ⁠of Russia's space agency Roskosmos said after the failed 2023 mission, saying the race was on to develop the moon's ⁠natural resources.

The Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite and ​sent the first human into space in the 1960s, but Russia's once mighty space programme has declined in the post-Soviet ‌era, falling behind the U.S. and, increasingly, China.

This week, four astronauts from NASA's Artemis II ‌mission were the first to fly around the ⁠moon in over 50 ‌years, travelling further ​into space than any humans before them.

(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Alessandra PrenticeEditing by Ros ‌Russell)

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