The Russian spacecraft “Luna-25” crashed on the surface of the moon after losing contact with it, according to the Russian TASS news agency.
In a statement, Sunday, that according to preliminary estimates, due to a deviation in the vehicle’s operational parameters from those that were planned, the Luna 25 spacecraft shifted to an orbit other than its intended one and crashed as a result of a collision with the lunar surface.
The Luna-25 flight is the first Russian space mission to the Moon in 47 years.
The Russian media reported that the Luna-25 spacecraft had an unusual accident during its mission to the moon, noting that this matter prevented it from moving to the pre-landing orbit level, according to the standards and settings specified for this purpose.
According to official statement by Roscosmos Foundation, “Today, (Saturday) according to the flight program of “Luna-25”, at 14:10 a push was given in order for the vehicle to move into orbit before the landing phase, during that process, an emergency situation occurred on board the vehicle, and didn’t allow it to perform the maneuver according to the specified criteria”.
Roscosmos pointed out that specialists are currently working on analyzing this situation.
Russia launched the “Luna-25” spacecraft from the Vostochny space base on August 11, and on August 13.
Roscosmos announced the operation of the spacecraft’s scientific equipment for space research for the first time.
With the “Luna-25”, the main objective of the mission is to implement a smooth landing on the moon’s surface in its south pole region, and the vehicle would have explored whether that area contains water or ice particles, the Luna-25 vehicle Luna-26, Luna-27 and Luna-28 are among the four lunar rovers.
According to the mission plan, Luna-25 was supposed to land on the moon on Monday, August 21.
Roscosmos revealed that the Luna-25 spacecraft took the first pictures of the Zeeman crater in the south polar region on the dark side of the moon.
The Zeeman crater is a unique location on the surface of the moon, and it’s of great interest to researchers, as the height of the protrusion surrounding it reaches 8 kilometers above the relatively flat bottom surface.
