Russian lunar lander crashed because engine kept burning | Abroad

The Russian space agency Roskosmos has shared the initial findings about the crash with state media. It is not yet known why the engines did not switch off when they should have.

The first Russian mission to the moon in almost half a century has thus failed. According to Roskosmos, an incident occurred on Saturday during a maneuver prior to the moon landing that was in principle foreseen on Monday. Shortly before noon Belgian time, communication with Luna-25 was lost.

The probe should have taken soil samples and searched for water. Much prestige was at stake for Russia. The country, which wants to set up a space station on the moon by 2040, wanted to prove that it is still capable of competing in space despite Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Luna-25 was launched more than a week ago. The 1,800-kilogram probe entered orbit around the moon last Wednesday. Since then, Luna-25 has been searching for a suitable landing site near the moon’s south pole.

It was the first Russian mission to the moon since the Soviet space probe Luna-24 in the year 1976. Roskosmos actually worked with the European space agency ESA on the new lunar program, but after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, ESA put a point behind that collaboration.

The failure of the Luna-25 mission is a blow to Russia. It achieved many successes in space travel during the Cold War. In 1966, the Soviet Union was the first country to land softly on the moon. In 1961, the communist superpower also launched the first human into space. That was the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

India is currently also on its way to the moon with its own vessel. The Chandrayaan-3 is due to land later this month. If successful, India would become the fourth country to successfully complete a moon landing, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China. Attempts by India, Japan and Israel, among others, failed.