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India to Russia: 'Sod you, Vlad, we're going to the moon ALONE'

Mars? Been there, done that

Russia couldn't promise the moon, it seems, so India has lost interest in a joint probe project scheduled for 2022.

The delays that have plagued Russia's Luna-27 lander project – originally planned for this decade but currently scheduled for a 2022 launch – have frustrated India, according to the New Indian Express.

That report says the news of India's loss of interest came out of the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Russian lunar lander would have been transported by an Indian rocket.

The council reportedly said “Roscosmos is advised to agree with the Indian side on the issue of exclusion of the Indian 'mini rover' from the payload of Luna-Resurs-1 (new project name – Luna-27)”.

India apparently told the Russians as well as the postponements, it was unhappy with Russia's high accident rate.

India plans to drop a lander on the Moon's south pole in 2016-2017.

Last year, India surprised the world by successfully achieving Mars orbit at its first attempt. The US$74 million Mars Orbiter Mission was launched in 2013.

Russia, on the other hand, has been making space news for all the wrong reasons of late: in April, it lost control of an ISS-bound cargo capsule, and last week a Proton-M rocket burned up over Siberia a few minutes after lift-off, destroying Mexico's MexSat-1. ®

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