Russia Confirms That Luna-25 Has Crashed in the Moon Surface After Failed Orbital Maneuver
By Paul Serran Aug. 20, 2023 2:23
Space.com reported:
“Russia’s first moon lander in 47 years has crashed into the lunar surface, the country’s space agency reported on Sunday (Aug. 20).
The Luna-25 lander, which Russia had hoped would land at the south pole of the moon as early as Monday (Aug. 21), crashed into the moon after an orbital maneuver went wrong yesterday (Aug. 19), officials with Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said.
‘At about 14:57 Moscow time [on Aug. 19], communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted’, Roscosmos wrote in an update on Telegram today ‘The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results’.”
Ars Technica reported on the nature of the emergency:
“The 1.2-ton lunar lander entered orbit around the Moon three days ago, and since that time Russian engineers have been sending commands for small engine burns to correct the spacecraft’s orbit. Roscosmos sent another of these commands on Saturday to put Luna 25 into a ‘pre-landing orbit’, ahead of a landing that had been due to occur as soon as Monday.
However, during the maneuver at 14:10 Moscow time (11:10 UTC) on Saturday a problem occurred, which did not allow the operation to be carried out successfully. ‘The management team is currently analyzing the situation’, concluded the short statement from Roscosmos.”
So far, a preliminary analysis suggests that the failed orbital maneuver sent the lander into an unexpected trajectory, and it ‘ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface’.
The loss of Luna-25 is a hard setback for the Russian space program that is trying to reclaim its superpower status. Meanwhile, the Indian mission is on track to touch down in the Lunar South Pole between Wednesday and Thursday.
