Russia鈥檚 first moon mission in nearly half a century has ended in disaster, as a lander due to softly touch down at the lunar south pole instead slammed into the surface at speed.
The Luna 25 mission was named in continuation of the Soviet Union鈥檚 missions of the 1970s, which ended with Luna 24 bringing samples of moon rock back to Earth in 1976. The new mission launched on 11 August atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia and was due to put a lander in the Boguslawsky crater near the lunar south pole, where scientific instruments would study the composition of moon dust.
On 20 August, the Russian space agency Roscosmos declared an 鈥渁bnormal situation鈥�, after what was intended to be a short engine firing to reposition the lander seemingly continued for too long, causing it to crash into the surface and 鈥渃ease to exist鈥�, the agency on Telegram.
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Roscosmos lost contact with the 800-kilogram craft at about 2.57pm Moscow time on 19 August and was unable to re-establish contact over the following two days. The Russian Space Research Institute said in a statement that an official commission had been launched .
The new mission had been seen as an effort by Russia to inherit and continue the legacy of the Soviet Union鈥檚 successful lunar exploration, even as it became increasingly isolated due to its invasion of Ukraine. The European Space Agency (ESA) had been working with Russia on the mission, providing a Pilot-D camera built specifically for use during landing. But ESA ended the partnership after the invasion.
鈥淲hen the partnership ended, ESA retrieved its hardware and has procured flight opportunities with other partners,鈥� the agency .
Another mission, India鈥檚 Chandrayaan-3, is due to land at the lunar south pole in the coming days, following a 14 July launch. If successful, India will be the first nation to explore this region of the moon.
