The Luna-25 spacecraft from Russia crashed into the moon on Sunday after spinning out of control, according to the nation’s Roscosmos space agency.
The robotic spacecraft’s goal was to make history by being the first to set foot on the south pole of the moon, which is thought to contain significant amounts of frozen water and valuable components, according to scientists. It was supposed to touch down on Monday.
Roscosmos, on the other hand, claimed that it lost contact with the Luna-25 on Saturday when it encountered problems and reported a “abnormal situation”.
The device “moved into an unpredictable orbit and stopped functioning as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” according to an agency statement.
A July 14-launched Indian spacecraft and the Luna-25 were competing to be the first reaching the south pole. Between August 21 and August 23, both were predicted to arrive at the moon.
Since joining the Soviet Union in 1976, Russia had not conducted a lunar mission. The Soviet Union, the United States, and China are the only three nations to have accomplished successful moon landings.
Scientists are particularly interested in the lunar south pole because they think the continuously shadowed polar craters may have frozen water in the rocks that future explorers could use to make air and rocket fuel.
Indian spacecraft collided with the moon’s surface during an earlier attempt to land at the south pole in 2019.
By demonstrating that Russia “is a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon,” Roscosmos claimed it would “ensure Russia’s guaranteed access to the moon’s surface.”
Since Moscow started intervening in Ukraine, sanctions have been placed on Russia, which have had an impact on its space program and made it more challenging for it to access Western technologies.
The Luna-25 was designed to carry a small lunar rover at first, but analysts believed the plan was scrapped in order to make the vehicle lighter and more dependable.
On August 10, the vehicle was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East. Vladimir Putin’s favourite project, the spaceport, is essential to his attempts to turn Russia into a space superpower.