The Luna-25 probe, Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly 50 years, crashed into the moon after an incident during pre-landing maneuvers, the Russian space agency said on Sunday. Communications with Luna-25 were lost at 2:57 p.m. (11:57 a.m. in Lisbon) on Saturday, Roscosmos reported.
According to preliminary findings, the probe “ceased to exist after colliding with the moon’s surface,” Roscosmos said. “Measures taken on 19 and 20 August to locate and contact the vessel were unsuccessful.”
The space agency also said an investigation would be launched into the causes of the crash, without giving any indication of what technical issues might have arisen.
With Luna-25, Moscow hoped to cement the legacy of its Soviet-era Luna program and mark a return to independent lunar exploration in the face of growing isolation from the West.
The 800-kilogram Luna-25 probe should have landed smoothly on the south pole of the moon, the first in history. Russia has not attempted to land on a celestial body since 1989, when the Soviet Union’s ill-fated Phobos 2 probe, intended to explore the moons of Mars, failed due to an onboard computer malfunction.
Roscosmos director Yuri Borisov has already said the venture would be “risky,” after privately telling President Vladimir Putin in June that the chance of success was “about 70 percent.”
Source: DN
