Russia’s Luna-25 crashed in Moon, confirms Roscosmos

Moscow: Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, confirmed on Sunday that its lunar mission, Luna-25, has experienced a crash landing on the Moon. According to the space agency, the incident occurred on Saturday as the spacecraft was executing its planned maneuvers.

The space agency explained that as part of the spacecraft’s flight program, an engine burn was initiated on Saturday to create a specific elliptical orbit in preparation for landing. However, at approximately 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was suddenly lost.
Despite extensive efforts made on August 19 and 20 to reestablish contact and locate the spacecraft, these attempts proved unsuccessful. A preliminary analysis indicated that due to deviations in the engine burn’s parameters from the planned values, the spacecraft deviated from its intended path and ultimately collided with the lunar surface, resulting in its loss.

To address this setback, Roscosmos has established an interdepartmental commission tasked with investigating the exact reasons behind the mission’s failure and loss of the lunar lander.

This unfortunate incident occurred just one day before Luna-25 was scheduled to make a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole. It marks a disappointing end to Russia’s lunar mission, which was a significant endeavor for the country after nearly five decades. Luna-25 was launched on August 10 and successfully entered lunar orbit on August 16. Its planned landing date was set for Monday, only two days prior to India’s Chandrayaan mission.