Luna-25 launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on August 10.
The head of Russia’s space agency said that the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after its engines failed to shut down correctly, and he blamed the country’s decades-long pause in lunar exploration for the mishap.
“Instead of the planned 84 seconds, it worked for 127 seconds. This was the main reason for the emergency,” Mr Borisov told Russian state news channel Russia 24.Roscosmos had contact with the spacecraft until 2:57pm local time on Saturday, when communication was lost and “the device passed into an open lunar orbit and crashed into the surface of the Moon”, he said.
The Luna-25 was in a race with an Indian spacecraft launched on July 14 to be the first to reach the south pole. Both were expected to reach the Moon between August 21-23. Before the launch, Roscosmos said it wanted to show Russia “is a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon”, and “ensure Russia’s guaranteed access to the moon’s surface”.
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