Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into moon

Aug 20, 2023 at 10:51 AM
Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into moon

Russia has reported that its Luna-25 spacecraft has crashed into the moon.

The unmanned robotic lander, which launched earlier this month, crashed after it spun into uncontrolled orbit, Russia’s area company Roscosmos reported on Sunday.

It comes after the nation reported an “abnormal situation” that its specialists had been analysing on Saturday.

The mission was the nation’s first to the lunar floor in almost 50 years.

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Russia had hoped that the robotic would spend a 12 months gathering samples of rock and dirt after touchdown on the moon’s south pole, which was resulting from occur on Monday.

In this image made from video released by Roscosmos State Space Corporation, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. The launch of the Luna-25 craft to the moon will be Russia's first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union. The Russian lunar lander is expected to reach the moon on Aug. 23, about the same day as an Indian craft which was launched on July 14. (Roscosmos State Space Corporation via AP)
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Pic: AP

However, the area company mentioned it had misplaced contact with the craft after it bumped into unspecified hassle whereas making ready for the pre-landing orbit.

“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” Roscosmos mentioned in an announcement on Sunday.

FILE PHOTO: A picture taken from the camera of the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 shows the Zeeman crater located on the far side of the moon, August 17, 2023. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT./File Photo
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An image taken from the digital camera of the lunar touchdown spacecraft Luna-25. Pic: Roscosmos

The robotic – which is the dimensions of a small automotive – blasted off on a Soyuz rocket and entered the moon’s orbit on Wednesday.

It has since despatched again photographs of the third-deepest crater on the lunar’s southern hemisphere, the Zeeman crater.

The lunar south pole is of explicit curiosity to scientists, who imagine the completely shadowed craters include water.

The frozen water within the rocks could possibly be reworked into air and rocket gas, probably permitting for longer human journeys.

No nation has ever really ventured into the area earlier than.

Specialists take part in preparations ahead of the launch
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Specialists making ready forward of Luna-25 launch

Russia was racing in opposition to India to make the bold touchdown, with its rival having launched its own lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 final month.

Roscosmos has been eager to show itself as a “space superpower” since the invasion of Ukraine saw its experts lose access to Western technology.