The head of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos), Yuri Borissov, said Monday that Russia should not abandon its lunar exploration program, despite the failure of the Luna-25 probe, mainly due to the interruption of missions for half a century. .
“Interrupting it would be the worst decision that could be made,” stressed the general director of the Russian space agency, who maintains, on the contrary, that Moscow must return to “mastering all technologies.”
Yuri Borissov stressed, in an interview with the Rossiya 24 television channel, that the first probe launched by Russia to the Moon since 1976 fell on Sunday mainly because Russia “suspended its lunar exploration program for almost fifty years.”
“The valuable experience accumulated by our predecessors in the 1960s and 1970s was practically lost and the transfer between generations did not take place,” lamented Yuri Borisov.
Almost fifty years after Moscow’s last successful lunar mission, the Luna-25 probe, which weighed almost 800 kilograms, crashed into the lunar soil after an incident on Saturday during a pre-landing maneuver.
Borisov noted that the accident occurred because an engine did not shut down normally and ran for 127 seconds, instead of the expected 84. A commission must quickly clarify the cause of the accident.
This failure occurs at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that Moscow will do everything possible to maintain its position, citing as an example the USSR sending the first man into space in 1961, in full escalation. of tensions between the two countries. The Soviet bloc and the western bloc.
Putin has vowed to continue Russia’s space program despite funding problems, corruption scandals and Russia’s isolation over the conflict in Ukraine.
Luna-25 lifted off on the night of August 10-11 from the Russian Far East. Its landing on the moon was scheduled for Monday at the lunar South Pole, which would have been a novelty, since so far the machines have landed in the equatorial zone.
Its mission, initially scheduled to last one year, was to collect and analyze soil samples.
After the unfortunate result of Luna-25, the Indian space probe Chandrayaan-3, launched in July, appears in the front line as the first candidate to land at the South Pole (expected date is Wednesday).
A new race to the Moon has begun in recent years, with the United States, China, India and South Korea showing off their ambitions.
Source: TSF
