Russian Luna 25 crashes into the moon due to malfunction

The Russian Luna 25 lunar lander crashed due to a malfunction, preventing it from reaching the moon's surface. The mission's goal was to demonstrate to the world for the first time since the Soviet era that Russia is capable of landing on the moon. However, a mistake in the engine thrust during a pre-landing manoeuvre pushed it towards the direction of the moon's surface, breaking communication.

Roscosmos has announced that the Luna 25 spacecraft has crashed into the Moon. On August 19, 2023, Roscosmos issued a command for deboosting the spacecraft to shed velocity and reduce its altitude in preparation for a controlled landing on the Moon, on August 21. The command was issued at 14:10 Moscow Time, or 16:40 IST, but the thrust from the engines was one and a half times higher than expected, because of a glitch whose cause is still being investigated.

At around 14:57 Moscow time or 17:27 IST, communications with Luna 25 was interrupted. The preliminary analysis indicates that the spacecraft switched to an orbit that it was not designed for because of the deviation from the parameters of the actual firing to the pre-calculated ones. The higher than expected thrust sent the spacecraft crashing into the Moon, resulting in the loss of communications.

To look into the reasons for the failure, an interdepartmental commission has been established. On August 19 and August 20, the ground personnel tried to locate the spacecraft and make contact again, but they were unable. Roscosmos has confirmed that Luna 25's collision with the lunar surface brought the mission to an early halt.

The first lunar surface mission in Russian modern history was Luna 25. It was the first of several lunar landers that Russia and China planned to launch in order to establish a base for interdisciplinary research on the moon's surface. Up to 2030, the Luna 25 programme had two landers and an orbiter for a relay satellite planned. Russia's ability to carry out a soft landing on an alien surface was to be demonstrated on the Luna 25 mission, but that will now have to wait for another mission as part of Roscosmos' lunar exploration project.