Luna-25 crashed due to a wrong control impulse

First Russian lunar probe after 47 years of idling was unable to land on moon

21.Aug.23 6:02 AM
By Abigail Richards
Photo ROSCOSMOS

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Luna-25 crashed due to a wrong control impulse

Russia's first mission to the Moon in 47 years has ended in failure. The unmanned Luna 25 spacecraft lost control in lunar orbit and crashed.

Russia's state space agency Roscosmos reported that it had lost contact with Luna 25. This incident occurred shortly after the spacecraft experienced problems when it entered pre-landing mode. "The lunar module entered an unpredictable trajectory towards the Moon, where it crashed," Roscosmos said.

Russia's previous lunar mission was Luna 24 in 1976. Luna 25 was scheduled to make a soft landing at the moon's south pole on Monday.

Russia has long shied away from investing in space missions. Priorities were elsewhere and Russia had lost out to the United States, which made the first moon landing in 1969.

Russia has had successes in space before that. The former Soviet Union was the first country to soft-land on the Moon in 1966. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin also made the first manned spaceflight in 1961.

With Luna 25, Russia aims to surpass India. The country aims to land on the South Pole of the Moon this week with Chandrayaan-3. India aims to become the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon after the Soviet Union, the US and China. The last two countries also have new and ambitious plans for lunar landing missions.

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