The Russian unmanned spacecraft Luna-25, which was supposed to land at the south pole of the planet of the same name, went out of control and “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon.”
On August 11, it launched from the site of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region in the direction of the Moon. In the past half century, this was Russia’s first mission to the moon since 1976, when it was part of the Soviet Union. The previous spacecraft, Luna 24, landed successfully.
The spacecraft was supposed to be the first in history to land on the south pole of the moon, officials say, but failed due to problems with the transition to the pre-landing orbit. writes Air Force. He was supposed to explore a part of the moon that scientists believe may contain frozen water and precious elements.
Russian state space corporation Roskosmos said on Sunday morning it had lost contact with Luna 25 on Saturday at approximately 2:57 pm (11:57 GMT). The 800-kilogram lander “has ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” the statement said. A special commission is called upon to consider and analyze why the mission failed. IN press release State Corporation “Roscosmos” says:
“According to the results of the preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.”
The loss of Luna-25 is a tangible blow to Roscosmos. In recent years, the civil space program of the Russian Federation has been in decline, state funding is increasingly being directed to military needs.
Russia has been racing to overtake India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is due to land on the moon’s south pole next week. The six-wheeled rover will then begin to move around the rocks and craters on the planet’s surface, collecting data and images to send back to Earth. The surface area of the moon’s south pole is much larger than that of the north, and water is more likely to be found there.
Roscosmos acknowledged that the Luna 25 mission was risky and could have failed. Although it was expected to go down in history by making a soft landing on the coming Monday or Tuesday, a few days before the Chandrayaan-3 landed.
No country has ever been to the moon’s south pole before, although both the US and China have soft-landed on the planet’s surface.
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