Russia’s Luna-25 crashed with Moon’s surface: Lunar probe’s final moments
connection with the Luna-25 automatic lunar probe was lost," Roscosmos said, adding that all efforts to connect with the lunar probe failed. “Preliminary analysis results suggest that a deviation between the actual and calculated parameters of the propulsion maneuver led the Luna-25 spacecraft to enter an undesignated orbit and it ceased to exist following a collision with the surface of the Moon," the agency said.
The cause of the Russian lunar probe is being determined, the space agency said. The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain frozen water in the rocks that future explorers could transform into air and rocket fuel.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 will also be attempting a landing on the south pole on August 23-24, paving the way for it to be the first to land on an unchartered territory of the Moon. A previous attempt by India, Chandrayaan-2, to land at the south pole in 2019 ended when the spacecraft crashed into the Moon’s surface.
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