The Russian space agency announced on Sunday that a preliminary analysis of the Luna 25 mission issue indicates that a difference between the actual and calculated parameters of the propulsion maneuver caused the spacecraft to transition into an unintended orbit, resulting in a collision with the lunar surface and subsequent loss.
“On August 19, an impulse was provided to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit in accordance with the Luna-25 flight program.” Communication with the Luna-25 apparatus was lost around 14:57 Moscow time. The procedures made on August 19 and 20 to locate and contact the device yielded no results (translated from Russian),” Roscosmos State Space Corporation declared on its official Telegram channel.
According to preliminary findings, the device moved to an off-design orbit and “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface.”
According to Roscosmos, a specially constituted interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of establishing the reasons for the Moon’s loss.
On August 11, the Russian space agency launched Luna 25 to the lunar south pole, resurrecting Soviet Union-era lunar exploration missions. It was supposed to make a gentle landing on the Moon on August 21, well ahead of India’s Chandrayaan 3 mission.
The mission’s goal was to investigate the composition of the lunar pole regolith (surface material) as well as the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.
The Indian Chandrayaan-3 will attempt landing on 23th August at 6:04 PM.