Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft did not land on the Moon, Roscosmos, Russia’s state-run space corporation, announced today. In an announcement, the organization reported that the lander “ceased to exist in consequence of a collision with the surface of the Moon.” It could’ve been the country’s first Moon landing since 1976.
Luna-25 entered orbit across the Moon last week, and was meant to orbit for just five days before landing on Monday, August twenty first, but over the weekend, Roscosmos said it was analyzing a “technical glitch” that occurred because it was preparing the craft to maneuver to a pre-landing orbit. Now the organization says Luna-25 has been lost.
Russia was pushing to beat India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission to land on the Moon. That spacecraft also made lunar orbit this month, and the country’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), tweeted this morning that Chandrayaan-3 is ready for its own Moon landing on August twenty third. India plans for it to set down on the Moon’s south pole — the identical region of the surface targeted by Luna-25 — on August twenty third. If successful, it’ll be the primary spacecraft to land on the Moon’s south pole.
Luna-25’s mission, after landing, was to review the Moon’s south pole ice to achieve insight into the satellite’s formation. Evaluation of the ice would let scientists “theorize on how water appeared on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite and whether this process was linked to the emergence of water on the Earth,” in accordance with a scientist quoted by the state-owned Russian news agency TASS. The unnamed scientist said the study would help determine whether the Moon formed independently, or if it was as an alternative blasted aside from the Earth by an extraterrestrial impact.
Luna-25’s Moon-bound mission began in 2015, and this landing was meant to be a precursor to an eventual crewed mission to the Moon in 2029. This mission is an unlucky setback for Roscosmos, which Russia has starved of funding in favor of its military, writes
Landing on the Moon isn’t any mean feat, and efforts to accomplish that are often met with failure and disappointment. Earlier this 12 months, Japanese startup ispace lost contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander after a three-month trip, and an Israeli Moon-landing mission resulted in catastrophe in 2019 when the Beresheet spacecraft’s engine failed during final descent. The ISRO also reported a failure the identical 12 months because it lost contact with the Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander because it crashed on descent.