The Russian Luna-25 mission was launched Aug. 10, at 2310 UTC, atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the nation's far eastern Amur Region. However, the moon lander, the country's first in 47 years, reportedly crashed, Aug. 19, into the lunar surface, according to the country's space agency Roscosmos on Sunday (Aug. 20).
"At about 14:57 Moscow time [on Aug. 19], communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted," Roscosmos wrote in an update on Telegram. "The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results."
The spacecraft's planned primary landing zone was a region called Boguslawsky Crater, but there were two backup landing spots also available: Southwest of Manzini Crater, and south of Pentland A Crater.
Russian officials had hoped Luna-25 would land at the south pole of the moon as early as Monday (Aug. 21). But according to a preliminary analysis, the lander crashed into the lunar surface after a wayward orbital maneuver sent it into an unexpected trajectory, one in which it "ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface," Roscosmos wrote.
Roscosmos officials said Sunday that they have already formed a team to investigate the crash of Luna-25 which was hoped to be a major space milestone for Russia.
"A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the moon [lander]," Roscosmos wrote in the Telegram update.
Luna-25 was designed and built by Russian aerospace company NPO Lavochkin. It had two major parts: a landing platform with a propulsion system; and landing gear, including a velocity and range meter for use during landing. Also on the lander was a non-pressurized instrument container for items such as solar panels, radiators, antennas, television cameras, a power source and scientific equipment.
The spacecraft sent its first in-space photos back to Earth on Aug. 13, including selfies with the moon and Earth in the background. The mission swiftly reached lunar orbit, a milestone that Roscosmos announced on Aug. 16. Aside from hunting water ice, the lander's main science goals included examining the regolith and rocks around it, looking at the wispy lunar atmosphere and testing out technology for future landings on the moon.
Roscosmos plans to follow Luna-25 with a lunar orbiter, called Luna-26, and then two more landing missions: Luna-27, which will send a drilling rig to the lunar surface; and Luna-28, a sample-collection mission that aims to return material from the moon's polar regions to Earth.
The last moon probe from Russia was Luna-24 in 1976, when Russia was still part of the Soviet Union. That probe landed in the moon's Sea of Crises (Mare Crisium) and ferried a sample back to Earth, a few years after the last human moon landing by NASA in 1972.
Few other nations also have the moon's south pole in sight. India's Chandrayaan 3 lander is also on track to touch down in that area very soon, as early as Aug. 23 or Aug. 24.
NASA plans to land the crewed Artemis 3 mission with SpaceX's new Starship vehicle, near the south pole in late 2025 or 2026, provided that Artemis 2 loops around the moon as planned with its crew in late 2024. The American space agency also helps fund a series of commercial robotic landers, some of which may touch down on the moon as soon as this year.
WATCH report on Luna-25 crash