Moscow: The Soviet Union today launched an unmanned satelllte – Luna-21 towards the moon, Tass reported.

The agency said the satellite was first placed in orbit round the earth and then blasted off towards the moon. All systems were working normally.

The Luna-21 launching was said to be part of Moscow’s scientific exploration of the moon and its immediate environment.

It took place at 6.55 a.m. GMT (12.25 p.m. IST).

The unmanned moon probe in the Luna series had been launched by the Soviet Union in February 1972. Luna-20 was launched on Feb. 4 landed on the moon’s surface, collected samples of lunar rock and landed back on earth on Feb. 25. It had remained on the lunar surface in a mountainous region In the area of “Apollonium” crater for just over a day in its mission to scoop up rock samples.

Tass gave no details of the mission of Luna-21 beyond saying that the main purpose of the flight is to further scientific studies of the moon and near-Lunar space. This was in accordance with the Soviet programme of space study.