Is Russia Best Friend of India in the aspect of Mission of 1st to reach Moon ?

As Chandrayaan-3 and Luna 25 prepare to land on Moon, two questions?

As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, Russia and India have had a historically strong and friendly relationship, often referred to as a "special and privileged strategic partnership." This partnership encompasses various areas such as defense, trade, energy, space, and cultural ties.

The Russians did not want to go to the South pole of moon first, but as soon as India's rocket was launched, they launched their own rocket as well. So Mission to reach Moon  first friendship Later.👯

Since the landing of the then Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976, only China has been able to land a spacecraft on the Moon — Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 in 2013 and 2018 respectively. India and Russia are both trying to make their first soft landing.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s Luna 25 are both in lunar orbit, preparing for a landing on the Moon next week. Luna 25 is expected to go first, on August 21, while Chandrayaan-3 is likely to touch down two days later, on August 23. Both missions are aiming to land in a region where no spacecraft has gone before, near the South Pole of the Moon.

History of Luna's

The previous Soviet lunar lander was Luna 24 in the mid-1970s. Nascent plans for what became Luna 25 began in the late 1990s, with the evaluation of two spacecraft designs having taken place by 1998. Attempts to revive and complete the project continued throughout the 2000s and were punctuated by an aborted attempt at international cooperation via a merger with JAXA's now-cancelled Lunar-A orbiter, and pressure from another attempted cooperative lunar mission with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) (which continued without Russia's involvement).

Initial mission plans called for a lander and orbiter, with the latter also deploying impact penetrators. In its current form, Luna 25 is a lander only, with a primary mission of proving out the landing technology. The mission carries 30 kg (66 lb) of scientific instruments, including a robotic arm for soil samples and possible drilling hardware.

Delays in the 2010s came first from the significant rework and delay brought on by the failure of Phobos-Grunt in 2011. This is the point at which the modern Luna 25 design was developed. Later, work on the lander was slowed by resource pressures being placed upon spacecraft developer NPO Lavochkin, such as the weather satellite Elektro-L No.2 and the Spektr-RG observatory as well the landing platform Russia was contributing to ExoMars 2020.

By 2017, the propulsion system for the spacecraft was in assembly.

The intended landing site is located at 69.545°S 43.544°E (north of the crater Boguslavsky), with two reserve areas located at 68.773°S 21.210°E (southwest of the Manzini crater) and 68.648°S 11.553°E (south of Pentland A crater).

The estimated mission duration of the lander on the surface of the Moon is at least one Earth year. The launch took place on 10 August 2023 on a Soyuz-2 rocket with Fregat upper stage from Vostochny Cosmodrome. On August 16, the probe entered lunar orbit and should proceed to land five days later 21 August.

About Luna 25

Luna 25 is a lunar lander mission by Roscosmos that is scheduled to land near the lunar south pole at the crater Boguslawsky. Initially called Luna-Glob lander, it was renamed to Luna 25 to emphasize the continuity of the Soviet Luna programme from the 1970s, though it is still part of what was at one point conceptualized as the Luna-Glob lunar exploration program. It is the first lunar probe that the Russian space agency Roscosmos has sent to the Moon (notwithstanding the ones sent by the Soviets) and could be the first probe to land on the lunar South Pole.

The Luna 25 mission lifted off on August 10, 2023, 23:10 UTC, atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur Region.

History of Chandrayan's

The Chandrayaan programme (Sanskrit: चन्द्रयान, romanized: Candrayāna, lit. 'Moon craft', pronunciation) also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Programme is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the exploration of the Moon. The programme incorporates lunar orbiter, impactor, soft lander and rover spacecraft.

There are have been three missions so far with a total of two orbiters, landers and rovers each. While the two orbiters were successful, the first lander and rover which were part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, crashed on the surface. The current composite of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is currently in the lunar orbit and will land on 23 August.

About Chandrayan 3

In November 2019, ISRO officials stated that a new lunar lander mission was being studied for launch in November 2020. This new proposal is called Chandrayaan-3 and it would be a re-attempt to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2025. This spacecraft configuration would not include launching an orbiter and would have a lander, rover, and a propulsion module with mission costing ₹ 250 crore with additional launch costs of ₹ 365 crore for LVM3.^[22][23] This third mission would land in the same area as the second one. Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 at 9:05:17 UTC. The primary goals of the Chandrayaan-3 mission encompass three key aspects. Firstly, it aims to showcase a successful and controlled touchdown on the lunar surface. Secondly, it intends to demonstrate the mobility of a rover on the Moon's terrain. Lastly, it seeks to carry out scientific experiments directly on the lunar surface.