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Luna-25, the first probe to be launched by Russia to the moon since 1976, crashed on the moon following an incident that occurred on Saturday during a maneuver prior to its landing, announced the Roscosmos space agency.
This failure comes at the same time as Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to continue the Russian space program despite funding problems, corruption scandals, and Russia’s isolation due to the conflict in Ukraine.
“After a thrust given to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit”, “around 2:57 PM (1:57 PM Brussels time), communication with Luna-25 was interrupted” on Saturday, explained Roscosmos in a statement on Sunday.
“The measures taken on August 19th and 20th to search for the device and establish contact with it yielded no results,” regretted the space agency.
Furthermore, it added: “According to preliminary results” of the investigation, the device “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface”.
“An interministerial commission” will be responsible for understanding “the reasons” for the incident that caused “the loss” of Luna-25, also announced the Russian space agency, which did not provide possible causes for the technical problem that occurred.
The Luna-25 mission, intended to give a new boost to the Russian space sector, was announced as “risky” by Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov.
Facing Vladimir Putin last June, he declared: “The probability of success for such missions is estimated at about 70%”.
Luna-25 was successfully placed in lunar orbit on Wednesday, after taking off from the Russian Far East on the night of August 10th to 11th. Its landing was scheduled for Monday.
#sonde #russe #Luna25 #sest #écrasée #sur #Lune
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