Russia lunar mission falters, Luna-25 crashes into moon surface

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
20 Aug 2023 13:25

Russia's Luna-25 lunar mission ends in failure as the spacecraft crashes into the moon's surface due to a trajectory deviation.

A picture taken from the camera of the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 during its flight to the moon shows the mission emblem and the bucket of the lunar manipulator complex, August 15, 2023 (Roscosmos)

Luna-25 spacecraft had deviated from its intended orbit and subsequently crashed into the moon's surface, Roskosmos Russia's state space corporation announced.

"Based on the results of preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual impulse parameters from the calculated ones, the Luna-25 spacecraft entered a non-calculated orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," the corporation said.

Preliminary calculations suggested that due to discrepancies between calculated and actual impulse parameters, Luna-25 entered an unanticipated trajectory, resulting in its crash on the moon's surface.

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," the statement added.

Luna-25, intended to softly land on the moon's south pole, would've marked Russia's first moon mission in 47 years. This incident comes amid international competition, with India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft poised for a moon landing and China and the United States advancing their lunar ambitions.

Yesterday, an onboard emergency on Russia's Luna-25 module was reported to hinder its planned shift to the pre-landing orbit with defined parameters.

The incident took place at 2:10 PM [11:10 GMT] during an attempt to execute the orbital shift as per the Luna-25 flight plan. Specialists then embarked on evaluating the situation, as stated in a Roscosmos release.