Russia’s First Lunar Mission in Years Ends in Disaster

Russia's first lunar mission in over 40 years ends in disaster.

Russian Space Agency Roscosmos recently confirmed that its Luna 25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon's surface after experiencing a system glitch.

Russia launched its lunar mission within days of India's, which is already looking for a safe landing spot on the Moon.

Chasing Past Glories

Russia's Luna 25 spacecraft has officially become space junk. According to a CNN report, Roscosmos lost touch with the spacecraft on Aug. 19 at around 2:57 PM Moscow time. This meant that the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface around that time.

The Russian space agency added that the measures it took to re-establish communication with the spacecraft didn't yield any results. Meanwhile, its preliminary analysis of the ill-fated mission showed that Luna 25 "switched to an off-deisgn orbit" before colliding with the Moon.

Roscosmos has yet to determine what caused its Luna 25 spacecraft to crash, but the events before it are clear. According to a Space.com report, Roscosmos's Luna 25 spacecraft suffered an "emergency situation" on Aug. 19, per the space agency's statement on Telegram.

This "emergency situation" occurred on board the Luna 25's automatic station, preventing the spacecraft from executing the engine burn needed to enter its final pre-landing orbit.

Luna 25's crash onto the lunar surface marks the (disastrous) end of Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years - a blow to the country and its space agency's prestige. The country's last lunar mission, which involves the Luna 24 moon lander, landed on the Moon's surface on Aug. 18, 1976.

Luna 25's launch was supposed to be undertaken by a partnership between Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA), with the partnership covering three subsequent lunar missions. However, cooperation between the two space agencies ended when Russia went into open conflict with Ukraine in 2022 - the ESA moved to "discontinue cooperative activities with Russia" in Apr. 2022.

It is unknown if and when Russia will attempt another lunar mission in the coming years due to the low value of the Russian Ruble affecting the country's economy, per Markets Insider.

Russia's Luna 25 spacecraft was meant to land somewhere on the Moon's south pole region, where scientists believe there could be reserves of frozen water and previous elements, per NBC News.

Indian Victory?

Russia launched its lunar mission days before India's, meaning that the two country's lunar missions are in an unofficial competition on who could get their spacecraft onto the Moon's south pole.

However, to say that there is ongoing competition between the two countries wasn't entirely accurate. Both Russia and India's lunar mission were decades in the making, per astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell; they just launched within days of each other by coincidence.

McDowell is a researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.

Nevertheless, India's Chandrayaan-3 moon lander is making good time on its mission. A BBC report stated that the spacecraft is already looking for a safe landing spot at the Moon's south pole.

The spacecraft is expected to land on the lunar surface on Aug. 23 at 12:34 GMT.