Russia on Friday successfully launched Luna-25, its Lunar mission. A rocket carrying a lunar landing craft blasted off on Friday, aiming to land on the moon on August 21, ahead of the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3.

The Chandrayaan-3 would attempt a soft landing on the moon’s surface on August 23.

A Soyuz 2.1v rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. on Friday Moscow time, with its upper stage boosting the lander out of Earth’s orbit towards the moon over an hour later, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.

The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on August 21, Russia’s space chief Yuri Borisov told Interfax. Roscosmos said that its Luna 25 spacecraft will take about five days to travel to the Moon. It will then spend around five to seven days in lunar orbit before descending to one of three potential landing sites near the pole.

The launch from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of the Luna-25 craft to the moon is Russia’s first since 1976, when it was part of the Soviet Union.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday congratulated its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos. “Congratulations, Roscosmos on the successful launch of Luna-25. Wonderful to have another meeting point in our space journies. Wishes for Chandrayaan-3 & Luna-25 missions to achieve their goals,” the ISRO posted on X (formerly Twitter).

The two lunar missions, Luna 25 and Chandrayaan-3, won’t interfere with each other as they have separate landing areas planned.

According to NASA, The Luna 25 mission aims to study the composition of the lunar polar regolith (surface material) and the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.

While, Chandrayaan-3 aims to demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, rover mobility, and in-situ scientific experiments.