spacetoday.net: ESA cuts cooperation with Russia on lunar missions

ESA cuts cooperation with Russia on lunar missions

Posted: Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 9:46 AM ET (1346 GMT)
ESA said Wednesday it was further cutting links with Russia by ending cooperation on a series of lunar missions. ESA said it would no longer participate on the Luna-25, 26 and 27 missions Roscosmos has been developing, cooperation that featured flying a navigation camera on the Luna-25 lander and drill instrument on Luna-27. ESA said it will instead fly the drill on a NASA commercial lunar lander mission and had also arranged to fly an instrument on a lunar rover mission being jointly developed by India and Japan. ESA also announced it was supporting three new programs, including a lunar communications and navigation satellite system, that it will seek funding for at this fall's ministerial meeting.