Luna 25 was a Russian lunar lander mission that was supposed to land near the lunar south pole at the crater Boguslawsky. It was launched on August 11, 2023 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia1. It was Russia’s first lunar mission in almost 50 years, since Luna-24 in 1976.
However, the Luna 25 mission failed on August 19, 2023, when Luna-25 crashed on the moon after an incident during pre-landing maneuvers. According to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, communication with Luna-25 was lost at 11:10 GMT on Saturday, when the spacecraft was supposed to enter a pre-landing orbit2. The spacecraft spun into an uncontrolled orbit and smashed into the moon’s surface.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but some experts have suggested that it could be due to a malfunction of the propulsion system, a software error, or a collision with space debris. The failure of Luna-25 is a major setback for Russia’s space program, which has been struggling with technical and financial challenges in recent years. It also means that Russia has missed the opportunity to be the first to land on the moon’s south pole, which is of scientific interest because of the possibility of finding water ice there.
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