Moscow: Russia’s ambitious moon mission Luna-25 has failed. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday that the Luna-25 spacecraft collided with the moon after going into an uncontrolled orbit instead of the intended orbit. Let us tell you that Luna-25 was competing with India’s Chandrayaan-3 for a safe landing on the moon. The Russian spacecraft was also supposed to land on the south pole of the Moon, but that mission was unsuccessful. This was Russia’s first Moon mission after 47 years.
The development comes a day after Roscosmos reported that it faced an emergency while transferring Luna-25 to orbit just before landing on the moon. According to Roscosmos, Luna-25 was to land on the South Pole of the Moon on 21 August. The Russian space agency had earlier said that the mission encountered an ‘abnormal situation’ when Luna-25 deviated from the intended orbit and went out of control of Roscosmos.
Luna-25 was about to land on the moon in just 11 days
On August 10, Luna-25 was sent into space for the first time in nearly five decades, following the Soviet-era Luna-24 mission in 1976. It had adopted a more direct path to the moon and it was estimated that it would try to land in about 11 days till 21 August. Luna-25’s fast journey was attributed to the vehicle’s lightweight design and efficient fuel storage, which enabled it to take a shorter route to its destination.
Explain that the South Pole of the Moon arouses special interest due to its potential water resources and unique geological features. This relatively unknown region of the Moon is important for future Moon missions, including the upcoming Artemis-3 mission of the US space agency NASA, which aims to take humans to the Moon after a gap of five decades.
