After Luna 25 Crash, Russian Space Agency Chief Reveals 'Main Reason for Failure'

The day after the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that its Moon mission Luna 25 had crashed, the agency's chief, Yuri Borisov, vowed to "stay in the lunar race." In an interview with a Russian television channel, Yuri Borisov conveyed, "We must not halt the lunar program under any circumstances; that would be the gravest choice," as reported by the news agency AFP.

Borisov continued by attributing the mission's setback to the prolonged hiatus in lunar exploration that Russia had undergone for decades. He commented, "The nearly 50-year pause in the lunar program is the primary factor behind the Luna 25's failure. The invaluable knowledge gathered by our predecessors during the 1960s and 1970s was largely lost during this interruption of the program."

The launch of Russia's Moon mission, Luna 25, took place on August 11 with the objective of exploring the lunar south pole, reviving the era of Soviet Union lunar exploration missions. The mission aimed to investigate the composition of the lunar polar regolith (surface material) and the plasma and dust constituents of the lunar polar exosphere. Initially scheduled for a soft landing on the Moon on August 21, ahead of India's Chandrayaan 3 lunar mission, the mission faced complications.

On August 21, preliminary assessments of the lunar mission indicated that a deviation between the actual and projected parameters of the propulsion maneuver led to the spacecraft entering an unintended orbit. Consequently, this deviation caused the craft to collide with the lunar surface, resulting in its loss.

"The engine that was designated to place the spacecraft into the pre-landing orbit functioned for 127 seconds instead of the intended 84 seconds. This discrepancy was the primary factor behind the probe's crash," Borisov informed the Russian channel, as cited by AFP.

Borisov went on to mention that a specialised commission has commenced an investigation into the precise reasons behind the incident.