Russia’s first lunar exploration program in nearly half a century could face serious problems.
The Luna 25 spacecraft was scheduled to enter its final pre-landing orbit around the Moon today (August 19), prior to a touchdown attempt on Monday (August 21) or so. However, a problem occurred with the probe while the engine was burning.
“During operation, an emergency occurred inside the automated station, making it impossible to operate with the specified parameters,” writes the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Telegram updates Today (Russian, Google Translate). “Management is currently analyzing the situation.”
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That’s all we have to go on at this point. But as is often the case, speculation fills in the information gaps.
“Russian internet is currently flooded with rumors and failure scenarios, most of which assume that Luna-Glob (#Luna25) was lost. , Roscosmos would never have mentioned that! ;)” Anatoly Zack of RussianSpaceWeb.com wrote to X (old Twitter) today.
If Luna 25 really did die, it would be a huge blow to the Russian space program. Luna 25 is the first lunar mission developed by modern Russia and the first for Russia or its predecessor, the Soviet Union, since her 1976 Luna 24 mission.
Luna 25 launched on August 10 and reached lunar orbit six days later. It is expected to land near the lunar south pole, possibly as early as Monday.
The lander carries eight different scientific instruments. If it recovers from today’s glitch, Luna 25 will use its equipment to search for water ice and carry out various surveys in exotic Antarctic regions hitherto unreachable by landers and rovers. deaf.