Russia’s Latest Moon Lander Crashes, Ceases Existing

The last we saw of Luna-25Photo: Associated Press (AP)

I’ve got bad news for fans of lunar exploration, as Russia’s latest mission to the surface of the Moon sadly crashed this weekend. The un-manned Luna-25 craft was aiming to be the first probe to ever land on the Moon’s south pole, before disaster struck on Saturday.

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According to AP News, it was hoped that the Luna-25 space probe would reach the south pole of the Moon, where it would be able to study deposits of frozen water and other rare minerals. However, the craft spun into “an uncontrolled orbit” on Saturday, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Once control of the lander was lost, AP News reports that Roscosmos then lost contact with Luna-25 after the spacecraft “ran into difficulties and reported an abnormal situation.” In a statement shared by AP News, Roscosmos said:

“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.”

The Luna-25 probe while it still existedPhoto: Associated Press (AP)

Despite the rather dramatic way of wording the crash, experts say there were still successes to be found in the mission. According to AP News, the craft proved it was able to make some “orbit corrections,” test onboard scientific equipment and “even managed to collect some small scientific data during the flight.”

The craft launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia on August 10th and took its first images of the lunar surface on August 17th. The Luna-25 probe was then due to land in the polar region today (August 21st), making it the first craft to do so.

The mission to the Moon, which was Russia’s first since 1976, was in a race between an Indian probe to be the first to reach the lunar pole. In 2019, India sent a probe to try and land at the south pole, but it too crashed into the moon’s surface. The country launched another mission to the Moon earlier this month.