Russia's Luna-25 space probe impacts the surface of the moon

The Russian spacecraft was launched with the purpose of a gentle touchdown on the moon, but ended up with a crash.

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft, launched with the intention of executing a gentle touchdown on the southern pole of the moon, has undergone a crash landing on the lunar surface, as confirmed by the Roscosmos space agency on Sunday. The incident was attributed to a deviation between the factual and computed parameters of the propulsion maneuver, causing Luna-25 to veer off its intended course and ultimately collide with the moon's surface.

The Roscosmos State Space Corporation communicated via its official Telegram channel, stating:

“On August 19, by the Luna-25 flight program, an impulse was provided to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit. At about 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Luna-25 apparatus was interrupted. The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get in contact with it did not produce any results."

A specialized committee has been convened by the space agency to ascertain the factors contributing to Luna-25's failure.

The crash transpired shortly after the Russian space agency reported an "anomalous situation" involving Luna-25. Roscosmos revealed that the spacecraft encountered an unspecified predicament while endeavoring to attain the designated pre-landing orbit. The precise nature of the predicament remains unclear, and the agency's specialists are presently engaged in analyzing and evaluating the circumstance.

Roscosmos conveyed in a Telegram message:

“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters."

The crash of Luna-25 will not impede the schedule of Chandrayaan-3, as India's lunar mission is proceeding unhindered towards its intended soft landing at the southern pole of the moon on August 23. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed the landing date and also disclosed the landing time of 6:04 PM (IST). ISRO executed the second and final deboosting procedure for Chandrayaan-3 on Sunday.

ISRO's tweet affirmed:

“The second and final deboosting (slowing down) operation has successfully reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km. The module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site. The powered descent is expected to commence on August 23, 2023, around 1745 Hrs IST."

Source: livemint.com