Luna-25 collides in Russia’s lunar mission failure – 8/20/2023 – Science
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Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years failed after its Luna-25 spacecraft lost control and crashed into the moon.
Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, said it lost contact with the spacecraft shortly after a problem occurred as the spacecraft was directed into pre-lift orbit on Saturday.
“The device entered an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
The failure of the mission highlights the decline of Russia’s space power since the glory days of Cold War competition, when Moscow pioneered the launch of a satellite into Earth orbit – Sputnik 1, in 1957 – and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.
Russia has not attempted a lunar mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin. Luna-25 was supposed to perform a soft landing at the Moon’s south pole on August 21, according to Russian space officials.
Russia was competing with India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land at the moon’s south pole this week, and more broadly against China and the United States, which have advanced lunar ambitions.
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