Luna-25: Russia’s first moon landing in 47 years ends in a crash

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said in a statement that its specialists were working to analyze the situation and find a solution. It did not reveal the nature of the problem or whether it would affect the landing attempt. “An abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos said.

Now as Reuters reports, Roscosmos said in a statement that it had lost contact with Luna-25 shortly after the problem occurred. “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roscosmos said.

Luna-25 was part of Russia’s ambitious plan to revive its lunar exploration program and demonstrate its technological prowess in space. The spacecraft was designed to study the lunar soil and look for signs of water ice in the permanently shadowed craters near the south pole. Water ice could be a valuable resource for future human missions to the moon, as it could be converted into air and rocket fuel.

The spacecraft also had a scientific payload that included instruments to measure the chemical composition of the lunar surface, the magnetic field, and the plasma environment. On Saturday, Roscosmos announced that Luna-25 had obtained its first results from these instruments and transmitted them back to Earth. The data contained information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil and also registered a “micrometeorite impact” on the spacecraft.

Roscosmos also shared some images of the moon taken by Luna-25’s camera. The images showed the Zeeman crater, one of the largest craters in the southern hemisphere of the moon. The crater has a diameter of 190 kilometers (118 miles) and is eight kilometers (five miles) deep.

Luna-25’s failure is a major blow to Russia’s space program, which has been struggling to keep up with its rivals since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia has not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976 when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin. Luna-25 was supposed to execute a soft landing on the south pole of the moon, a feat that has never been achieved before by any country.

Other lunar missions

Russia has been racing against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon’s south pole this week, and more broadly against China and the United States which both have advanced lunar ambitions. India and Russia are hoping to join an exclusive club of nations that have successfully landed on the moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.

Luna-25’s crash marks a sad end for Russia’s attempt to reclaim its status as a space superpower and assert its presence on Earth’s natural satellite. The mission was also a symbol of President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to modernize Russia’s space industry and move Russian launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Luna-25 is one of three lunar landers that are scheduled to launch this month. Japan’s SLIM spacecraft, which will test precision landing technologies, is set to launch on Aug. 25 along with an X-ray astronomy observatory on an H-2A rocket. It will try to land near Shioli crater on the moon after four to six months.

The moon is becoming a busy place as more countries and private companies are eyeing its potential for scientific discovery and commercial exploitation. Luna-25 was Russia’s hope to make history on the moon, but it ended up being a tragic reminder of its past glory.

AP has contributed to this report.