Russia's Luna-25 probe crashes on the Moon: Roscosmos – MM News

MOSCOW: The Luna-25 probe, Russia’s first Moon mission in almost 50 years, has crashed on the Moon after an incident during pre-landing manoeuvres, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.Communication with Luna-25 was lost at 2:57 pm (1157 GMT) on Saturday, Roscosmos said.According to preliminary findings, the lander “has ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon’s surface”.“Measures taken on August 19 and 20 to locate the craft and make contact with it were unsuccessful,” the space agency added.It said a ministerial investigation would be launched into the causes of the crash, without giving any indication of what technical problems might have occurred.With Luna-25, Moscow had hoped to build on the legacy of its Soviet-era Luna programme, marking a return to independent lunar exploration in the face of financial troubles and corruption scandals at the programme and growing isolation from the West.The 800-kilogram Luna-25 probe was to have made a soft landing on Monday on the lunar south pole – the first in history.Russia has not attempted to land on a celestial body since 1989, when the Soviet Union’s ill-fated Phobos 2 probe to explore the moons of Mars failed due to an onboard computer malfunction.Roscosmos boss Yuri Borisov
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