Luna 25 crashed: The Russian space agency announced on Sunday that a preliminary analysis of Luna 25 mission issue suggests that a deviation between the actual and calculated parameters of the propulsion manoeuvre led to the spacecraft transitioning into an unintended orbit, resulting in its collision with the lunar surface and subsequent loss.
“On August 19, in accordance with the Luna-25 flight programme, an impulse was provided to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit. At about 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Luna-25 apparatus was interrupted. The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get in contact with it did not produce any results,” Roscosmos State Space Corporation said on its official Telegram channel.
The space agency added that according to the results of the preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface.”
A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the Moon, Roscosmos said.
Luna 25 mission
The Russian space agency launched its moon mission Luna 25 for the lunar south pole on August 11 reviving Soviet Union-era lunar exploration missions. It was scheduled to attempt a soft landing on Moon on August 21, notably ahead of India's Chandrayaan 3 moon mission.
The Luna 25 mission aimed to study the composition of the lunar polar regolith (surface material) and the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.
