Russia to Send Unmanned Moon Probe in 2015

Russia is all set to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2015.

Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Tuesday that the spacecraft will be launched from the new Vostochny cosmodrome, in the Amur Region in Russia's Far East.

Russia's last moon mission was in the 1970s. The new lunar mission, called Luna-Glob, will be the first of the four missions planned before establishing a fully robotic lunar base, reports Russia's RIA Novosti.

The lunar orbiter will carry a load of 260 pounds that will include equipments to perform astrophysics experiments and instruments to study cosmic rays and dust. The orbiter will also try to retrieve water and soil samples from the moon.

Besides the unmanned spacecraft, Russia is also planning to send manned rockets to the moon. But it will not fly until 2018, said Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin.

The lunar project is part of the Federal Space Program that was supposed to kick-start back in the '90s. But the project was put on hold due to financial constraints and was planned to be completed last year. The mission was postponed, but is back on track, according to space.com.

Roscosmos is also planning to replace the aging Soyuz rocket with new ones by 2020. The Soyuz spacecraft became the only means of transportation to carry astronauts to the space station after NASA's spacecraft retired in 2011. But an accident to an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft in 2011 has raised safety concerns over the space travels.

The space agency will be facing increased competition from private companies like SpaceX and Orbital in developing commercial spaceships. California-based SpaceX has already successfully launched the cargo resupply mission to the space station.

The company has signed multibillion dollar deals with NASA to make use of its commercial spaceships for future projects.