Russia says its robotic spacecraft crashed while trying to land near the moon’s south pole, losing race to the moon India Be the first to reach the area.
Moon 25 was meant to mark moscow Returning to the Moon nearly half a century after the last Soviet mission. The spacecraft spun into an uncontrolled orbit and “disappeared” when it collided with the lunar surface, the Russian space agency said Russian Space Agency said in a statement on Sunday, citing preliminary findings.
Roscosmos said it lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday.
Meanwhile, India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which is orbiting the moon, may attempt to land near the poles this week.
For Roscosmos, the Luna-25 failure was the latest in a series of setbacks after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, cutting off launch service revenues for many foreign satellite operators. Luna-25 was due to land on the moon’s south pole as early as Monday, but the Russian space agency said on Saturday it could not reach its scheduled pre-landing orbit.
The lunar south pole is a coveted goal of spaceflight nations, including us and China. Sensors from various lunar spacecraft have found evidence of water ice in craters in the region. Engineers and scientists have raised the possibility of prospecting and even mining this water ice in the future for future lunar exploration and possibly even as a source of rocket fuel.
Read more: Russian space program in trouble after Putin invades Ukraine
By using the Luna name to represent the new mission, Roscosmos is linking the new probe to the achievements of the Soviet space program, a leader in early lunar exploration in the space age. nasa It was overshadowed by the Apollo missions.
Between 1958 and 1976, the Soviet lunar program attempted nearly 50 missions, of which only 17 people succeeded. These included Luna-2, the first spacecraft to reach the lunar surface, and Luna-3, the first to take photographs from the far side of the Moon, both in 1959.
The Russian space agency said in a statement that Luna-25 “is fundamentally different from its predecessor”. Post on Telegram last week. The Soviet-era spacecraft landed near the Moon’s equator, while the new mission is at the Moon’s south pole, an “area with more complex terrain.”
Chandrayaan 3 launched last month, a landing attempt could be made as early as Wednesday. Unlike Luna-25, the Indian spacecraft includes a rover in addition to a lander.
India’s previous moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, crashed near the moon’s south pole in 2019.
—with assistance from Loren Grush
Svlook
