The Russian Luna-25 probe, whose mission was to become the first spacecraft to land on the South Pole of the Earth’s satellite, has crashed onto the lunar surface, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos reported today.
Luna-25, the Russian probe tasked with being the first ship to land on the moon at the satellite’s south pole, failed to get into the orbit required for a landing on the lunar surface, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos reported on Saturday .
“During the operation at the automatic station, an emergency situation arose that prevented the maneuver from being carried out according to the expected parameters (…) The specialists of the control group are currently analyzing the situation,” they said via Telegram.
The probe was scheduled to land on the moon next Monday, August 21, ten after launch from Vostochni Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. It entered orbit last Wednesday and Roscosmos reported at all times that its systems were functioning normally.
It even sent images of the moon’s surface back to Earth and discovered, among other things, the impact of a micrometeorite.
Expecting to find water in the form of ice on the moon, Luna-25 was scheduled to land two days ahead of India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which was launched on July 14.