Russia says its Luna-25 lunar lander has crashed into the moon #technology...The accident occurred after Luna-25 switched to an incorrect orbit

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Roscosmos: Russia's Space Agency

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Roscosmos, also known as the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, is the coordinating hub for space activities in Russia. It performs numerous civilian activities (including Earth monitoring and the astronaut program) and coordinates with the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation for military launches.

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Luna 25 update, Russia Moon Mission Failed Crash on Moon, Why Crash Full Report, Roscosmos » sscnr

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20 Aug, 2023 09:00

Russian probe crashes into Moon – Roscosmos

The accident occurred after Luna-25 switched to an incorrect orbit, Russia’s space agency says

©  Roscosmos

"Russia’s Luna-25 automatic interplanetary station has collided with the Moon, space agency Roscosmos has said.

“According to the results of a preliminary analysis… the Luna-25 spacecraft switched to a non-designated orbit and ceased to operate due to a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roscosmos said on Sunday.

The probe was due to receive a signal to form a pre-landing elliptical orbit on Saturday, but communication was lost at 14:57 Moscow time (11: 57 GMT), the agency explained. 

• Efforts on Saturday and Sunday to locate the craft and restore contact were unsuccessful.
• A commission involving representatives of several agencies will be assembled to establish the reasons for the loss of the probe, Roscosmos said.

READ MORE: First picture by Russia’s historic lunar probe released (IMAGE)

Luna-25 was launched on August 11 by a Soyuz 2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region of Russia’s Far East. 

It was the first probe sent to the Moon by Russia since the Soviet era.
The mission aimed to achieve the first ever landing near the south pole of Earth’s satellite, known for its difficult terrain.

The spacecraft reached lunar orbit earlier this week, sending back high-resolution photos of the dark side of the Moon. Its landing was scheduled to take place on or around August 21.
The main goal of the mission was to examine the lunar soil for the presence of ice, with Roscosmos also saying it wanted to test soft-landing technology and conduct long-term research on the lunar exosphere and the upper layer of the south pole’s surface.

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Russia's lunar 25 crashed : r/Sham_Sharma_Show

Russia's first moon lander in 47 years has crashed into the lunar surface, the country's space agency reported on Sunday (Aug. 20). 

The Luna-25 lander, which Russia had hoped would land at the south pole of the moon as early as Monday (Aug. 21), crashed into the moon after an orbital maneuver went wrong yesterday (Aug. 19), officials with Russia's Roscosmos space agency said. 

"At about 14:57 Moscow time [on Aug. 19], communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted," Roscosmos wrote in an update on Telegram today (in Russian; translation by Google). "The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results."

Related: Russia launches Luna-25 moon lander, its 1st lunar probe in 47 years

A preliminary analysis suggests that the wayward orbital maneuver sent Luna-25 into an unexpected trajectory, one in which the moon lander "ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface," Roscosmos wrote. 

Luna-25 was hoped to be a major space milestone for Russia. The last moon probe from the country was Luna-24 in 1976, when Russia was still part of the Soviet Union. That probe landed in the moon's Sea of Crises (Mare Crisium) and ferried a sample back to Earth, a few years after the last human moon landing by NASA in 1972. Luna-25 was targeted to touch down near the south pole of the moon, where the probe was to spend one Earth year searching for water ice and performing a number of scientific investigations.

Click here for more Space.com videos...Luna-25 launched on Aug. 10 and sent its first in-space photos back to Earth on Aug. 13, including selfies with the moon and Earth in the background. The mission swiftly  reached lunar orbit, a milestone that Roscosmos announced on Aug. 16.

The spacecraft's primary landing zone was a region called Boguslawsky Crater, but there were two backup landing spots also available: Southwest of Manzini Crater, and south of Pentland A Crater.
Aside from hunting water ice, Luna 25's main science goals included examining the regolith and rocks around it, looking at the wispy lunar atmosphere and testing out technology for future landings on the moon.
Russian aerospace company NPO Lavochkin designed and built the lander, which had two major parts: a landing platform with a propulsion system; and landing gear, including a velocity and range meter for use during landing. Also on the lander was a non-pressurized instrument container for items such as solar panels, radiators, antennas, television cameras, a power source and scientific equipment.
The loss of Luna-25 could be a major blow to Russia's plans to fly a series of moon missions and its effort to develop a permanent crewed based on the moon with China. 
Roscosmos plans to follow Luna-25 with a lunar orbiter, called Luna-26, and then two more landing missions: Luna-27, which will send a drilling rig to the lunar surface; and Luna-28, a sample-collection mission that aims to return material from the moon's polar regions to Earth.  
Related: Missions to the moon: Past, present and future

Those subsequent moon missions will likely be delayed due to Luna-25's failure, as Roscosmos investigates to find the root cause of the probe's crash into the moon. The mission had already been delayed by technical issues and challenges due to sanctions over Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine that led the European Space Agency — which was to provide a precision camera to help Luna-25 land — to pull out of cooperative space projects with the country.
Roscosmos officials said Sunday that they have already formed a team to investigate the crash of Luna-25. 
"A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the moon [lander]," Roscosmos wrote in the Telegram update.

Click here for more Space.com videos...

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Russia is not alone in reaching for the moon's south pole. India's Chandrayaan 3 lander is also on track to touch down in that area very soon, as early as Aug. 23 or Aug. 24. NASA also has the south pole in sight, as a key part of its Artemis program to put people and landers on the moon in the coming decade.
NASA plans to land the crewed Artemis 3 mission near the south pole in late 2025 or 2026, provided that Artemis 2 loops around the moon as planned with its crew in late 2024 and that the spacesuits and lander (SpaceX's new Starship vehicle) are ready. NASA also has help fund a series of commercial robotic landers, some of which may touch down on the moon as soon as this year. 

Editor's note: This story was updated at 9:25 a.m. EDT to include the statement from Roscomos that Luna-25 had crashed into the moon. Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik contributed to this report.