Russian Luna-25 faces glitch during the pre-moon landing manoeuvre

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Russian Luna-25 faces glitch during the pre-moon landing manoeuvre

On Monday, the Russian spacecraft was supposed to touch down at the moon's south pole. The south pole of the moon is an unexplored region that scientists believe may contain frozen water and valuable components.

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August 20, 2023 13:05 IST
Russian Luna-25 faces glitch during the pre-moon landing manoeuvre
Russian Luna-25 faces glitch during the pre-moon landing manoeuvre

New Delhi: On Saturday, Russian Lunar Mission Luna-25 reported a technical issue in the last stages of preparation for its moon landing. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said that the spacecraft had difficulties entering a pre-landing orbit.

The problem was discovered before the Luna-25 spacecraft could adjust its orbit to the pre-landing configuration.

“During the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the carrying out of the manoeuvre within the specified conditions,” Roscosmos stated.

They said that the probe’s thrust was released to put it into a pre-landing orbit.

Roscosmos did not specify how the problem would affect the scheduled landing time and location on Monday, north of the Boguslawsky crater on the lunar south pole.

On Monday, the Russian spacecraft was supposed to touch down at the moon’s south pole. The south pole of the moon is an unexplored region that scientists believe may contain frozen water and valuable components.

Luna-25 will remain on the Moon for a whole year while it performs its primary mission of collecting and analysing soil samples.

Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency, reportedly informed President Vladimir Putin in June that such missions are risky and only had a 70% chance of success.

Russia’s first lunar landing mission in over half a century, Luna-25, entered lunar orbit on Wednesday. The launch took place in Russia at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

The lander’s cameras have already captured stunning pictures, including the Earth and Moon in the distance.

In parallel with India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which aims to arrive on the Moon’s south pole first, the Russian Moon Mission was launched. The landing dates for these two missions are so close together—August 21–23 for Luna-25 and August 23–24 for Chandrayaan-3—that they may overlap, which has piqued interest throughout the world.

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