NNA – The Luna-25 probe, Russia#39;s first Moon mission in almost 50 years, has crashed on the Moon after an incident during pre-landing manoeuvres, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.
Communication with Luna-25 was lost at 2:57 pm (1157 GMT) on Saturday, Roscosmos said.
According to preliminary findings, the lander quot;has ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon#39;s surfacequot;, Roscosmos said.
quot;Measures taken on August 19 and 20 to locate the craft and make contact with it were unsuccessful.quot;
The space agency said an investigation would be launched into the causes of the crash, without giving any indication of what technical problems might have occurred.
With Luna-25, Moscow had hoped to build on the legacy of its Soviet-era Luna programme, marking a return to independent lunar exploration in the face of growing isolation from the West.
The 800-kilogram Luna-25 probe was to have made a soft landing on the lunar south pole, the first in history.
Russia has not attempted to land on a celestial body since 1989, when the Soviet Union#39;s ill-fated Phobos 2 probe to explore the moons of Mars failed due to an onboard computer malfunction.
Roscosmos boss Yuri Borisov had said the venture would be quot;riskyquot;, telling President Vladimir Putin face to face in June that the probability of it succeeding was quot;around 70 percent.quot; — AFP
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