2023-08-20 17:48:30
The Russian spacecraft Luna-25 crashed into the Earth’s satellite following missing its programmed trajectory, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.
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“Moon-25 assumed an unforeseen orbit and ceased to exist as a result of the collision with the lunar surface,” the Russian space agency reported on its Telegram channel.
The agency recalled that on August 19, the lunar probe was scheduled to receive propulsion thrust to descend on its landing path in the elliptical orbit of the Moon.
����#NOW – The Luna-25 Probe: the first lunar mission in modern Russian history, failure to crash into the MOON. pic.twitter.com/pmsi3AUsQo
— DATOWORLD (@Datoworld)
August 20, 2023
“At regarding 2:57 p.m. the connection with the Luna-25 automatic lunar probe was lost,” according to Roscosmos.
The Russian space agency noted that all measurements related to the location of the spacecraft and the establishment of communications with it on August 19 and 20 returned zero results.
“The results of the preliminary analysis suggest that a deviation between the actual and calculated parameters of the propulsion maneuver led the Luna-25 spacecraft to enter an undesignated orbit and cease to exist following a collision with the surface of the Moon.” said Roscosmos.
The agency added that a special interdepartmental commission is already investigating the cause of the Russian lunar spacecraft crash.
Moon mission Luna-25
A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Luna-25 automatic lunar station lifted off from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East at 2:10 a.m. Moscow time on August 11.
On August 12 and 14, the automatic probe adjusted its flight path. twice. The lunar lander was scheduled to enter lunar orbit on August 16 and make a soft landing on the Moon’s surface on August 21.
The Luna-25 mission was aimed at testing a soft landing on the surface of Earth’s natural satellite.
The automatic station might have become the first mission to land on the South Pole of the Moon.
The station was to study the internal structure of the Moon and explore natural resources, including water, and also study the impact of cosmic rays and electromagnetic radiation on the Moon’s surface.
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