WASHINGTON — Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly half a century suffered an “emergency situation” during an attempted maneuver Aug. 19, putting plans for a landing into query.
In a temporary statement posted to its channel on the social media service Telegram, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said that the Luna-25 spacecraft was commanded to perform a maneuver at 7:10 a.m. Eastern to put the spacecraft right into a “pre-landing” orbit across the moon.
Nevertheless, in the course of the planned maneuver “an emergency situation occurred on board the automated station, which didn’t allow the maneuver to be performed with the required parameters,” based on a translation of the statement. “The management team is currently analyzing the situation.”
Roscosmos didn’t disclose additional details concerning the problem or the maneuver the spacecraft was performing. It was not clear if the incident would affect plans for a landing by Luna-25, which was slated for Aug. 21.
Roscosmos launched the long-delayed Luna-25 spacecraft on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East Aug. 10. The spacecraft performed a maneuver Aug. 16 to enter orbit across the moon that Roscosmos said was successful, although the agency didn’t disclose the parameters of that orbit.
Luna-25 is Russia’s first mission to the moon because the Luna-24 sample return mission in 1976. The lander, weighing an estimated 1,750 kilograms at launch, carries a package of Russian scientific instruments weighing 30 kilograms. The targeted landing site is near the Boguslawsky crater at roughly 70 degrees south latitude within the south polar region of the moon.
Development of Luna-25 suffered years of delays due to technical issues and constrained resources. The mission also lost a partnership with the European Space Agency, which planned to check a navigation camera system on the lander, after ESA severed ties with Roscosmos in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last yr.
Luna-25 is one in all two missions preparing for landings on the moon this month. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, launched July 14, entered lunar orbit Aug. 5. It’s gearing up for a landing attempt, also within the south polar region of the moon, Aug. 23.
A 3rd lunar lander, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) by Japan’s space agency JAXA, is scheduled for launch Aug. 25 together with the XRISM X-ray astronomy observatory on an H-2A rocket. SLIM, intended to reveal precision landing technologies, will attempt a landing 4 to 6 months after launch near Shioli crater at 13 degrees south latitude on the moon.