The Russian space station “Luna-25” crashed into the Moon

MPS”Luna-25″/Illustrative photo from open sources

Communication with the Russian automatic interplanetary station "Luna-25" was interrupted. This was reported by the state corporation “Roscosmos”.

The station went into an uncalculated orbit, collided with the Moon and  "ceased its existence".

As specified in “Roscosmos”, on August 19, according to the “Luny-25” flight program it was planned to “issue an impulse to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit”.

However, at 14:57 communication with “Luna-25” interrupted Searches for the apparatus on August 19 and 20, as well as attempts to establish contact with it, proved fruitless.

Due to the deviation of the actual pulse parameters from the calculated ones, the apparatus moved to an uncalculated orbit and ceased its existence as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.

Automatic station “Luna-25” – the first lunar mission in the modern history of Russia. Previous station “Luna-24” was launched in 1976 by the Soviet Union.

Luna-25" launched from the East cosmodrome in the Amur region on August 11. According to the plan, it was supposed to be the first station in history to land on the South Pole of the Moon.

Landing “Luna-25” on the surface of the Earth's natural satellite was expected on August 21 in the area north of the Bohuslav crater.

The main tasks of the mission are to practice soft landing technologies, study the internal structure and explore resources, including water.

Prepared by: Serhiy Daga