Mission was Moscow’s attempt to get back into the space race; last release made by the country had been in 1976
The 1st Russian lunar mission in 47 years failed on Saturday (19.Aug.2023). Launched on August 10, the Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and slammed into the Moon.
The expectation was that the equipment would carry out research at the south pole of the Earth satellite. “Their main task was to look for water”said Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to RT, Russian state media. The work on the surface of the Moon was supposed to last 1 year.
According to Roscosmos – Russia’s state agency for space services, the base lost contact with the spacecraft at 8:57 am (Brasília time) on Saturday (19.Aug). Before, the equipment deviated from the planned path. “The apparatus entered an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon.”, said in announcement.
A special interdepartmental commission was formed to investigate the reasons for the loss of the Luna-25 spacecraft, the agency said.
Russia was the 1st country to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth, Sputnik 1, in 1957. In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the 1st man to travel into space.
Despite its successful history of space missions, Moscow has not launched a mission to the Moon since Luna-24 in 1976.
With Luna-25, Russia intended to get back into the space race. In addition to the US and China, it competed with the Indian Chandrayaan-3, launched on July 14. Both were expected to land on the Moon from August 21 to 23. The Indian module already is in orbit around the moon.
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