Russia's Luna-25 probe crashes on the Moon: Roscosmos

AFP , Sunday 20 Aug 2023

The Luna-25 probe, Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years, has crashed on the Moon after an incident during pre-landing manoeuvres, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.

Russia moon landing
File photo: In this image made from video released by Roscosmos State Space Corporation, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. AP

 

Communication with Luna-25 was lost at 2:57 pm (1157 GMT) on Saturday, Roscosmos said in a statement. According to preliminary findings, the lander "has ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon's surface".

At present specialists of the command and control team are analyzing the situation, Russian news agency TASS reported.

The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle carrying the Luna-25 automatic probe was launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome at 2:10 a.m. Moscow time on August 11. On August 12 and 14, the spacecraft performed two trajectory corrections. On Wednesday, August 16, the automatic probe entered a lunar orbit.

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