Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft, which was launched earlier this month, has crashed into the moon, according to reports from Russia.
The unmanned robot lander lost control and crashed into the lunar surface after spinning into an uncontrolled orbit. This incident occurred after an “abnormal situation” was reported by the country’s specialists on Saturday.
The mission was Russia’s first to the moon in nearly 50 years. The robot was meant to collect rock and dust samples for a year after landing on the moon’s south pole, scheduled for Monday.
However, contact was lost with the craft when it encountered unspecified trouble during pre-landing preparations. Roscosmos, Russia’s space corporation, stated that the craft moved into an unpredictable orbit and collided with the moon’s surface.
The robot, similar in size to a small car, was launched on a Soyuz rocket and captured images of the Zeeman crater, the third-deepest crater in the moon’s southern hemisphere.
Scientists are particularly interested in the lunar south pole due to the presence of permanently shadowed craters believed to contain water. This frozen water could be converted into air and rocket fuel, potentially enabling longer human trips.
Russia was in a race with India to achieve this ambitious landing, as India had launched its own lunar lander, Chandrayaan-3, the previous month. Roscosmos has been striving to establish itself as a “space superpower” since the invasion of Ukraine resulted in the loss of access to Western technology.
