Chandrayaan-3 Would Not Be Impacted by Russia’s Luna-25’s Failure: ISRO Scientists

The failure of Russia’s Luna-25 moon mission will not have an impact on ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar expedition, according to India’s top space scientist.

The Russian space agency said on August 20 that the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on the moon after spinning into an uncontrolled orbit.

When the Chandrayaan-2 mission was launched in 2019, ISRO chief K Sivan told PTI: “It will not have any impact” when asked if ISRO would face additional pressure ahead of a soft landing following setbacks in Russia.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander module, which houses the rover on its belly, is expected to touch down on the lunar surface at around 6:04 p.m. on Wednesday, ISRO said on Sunday.

“It (Chandrayaan-3 mission) is proceeding as planned. It (soft landing) will be completed accordingly,” Sivan said. “We hope this time (unlike Chandrayaan-2) it (landing) will be successful”.

Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair dismissed claims by some that India and Russia are in the race to the moon and called the forced landing of Luna-25 an unfortunate one.

“I know about the (lander) module. It was ready back in 2008. When I visited the (Russian) lab, they showed me the module. They didn’t have the flight resources (at the time), so it was being used all the time. It was refrigerated for a long time. Only they have the resources (to launch) now,” he told PTI.

Nair ruled out any impact on the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which was launched on July 14, saying that the Indian joint venture is completely self-sufficient and “we are not dependent on them (Russia)”. Currently, India-Russia space cooperation is limited to training Indian astronauts for the Gagania manned spaceflight mission.

“So if it (Luna-25) lands, our data and their (Russian) data (collected from lunar surface experiments) will be complementary,” he said.