The Russian Luna-25 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon on Monday. During the preparations for this operation, an “unusual situation” occurred, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing the Roscosmos space agency.
“During the mission, an unusual situation occurred that did not allow the maneuver with the specified parameters to be performed,” Roskosmos said in a brief statement. “Specialists are analyzing the situation,” it added without further details.
The Soyuz 2.1v rocket with the Luna-25 spacecraft launched on August 11. The probe is scheduled to land on the lunar surface on Monday. The lander was launched into orbit around the Silver Globe on Wednesday.
Russian mission to the moon
A Russian mission has been sent to explore the lunar south pole, where scientists believe there may be significant reserves of frozen water. Finding it on the moon would be crucial to building a permanent base on Earth’s natural satellite.
The Luna-25 flight is the first Russian lunar mission since 1976, when the then-Soviet Union competed with the United States in a space race. Luna-24 then delivered lunar soil samples to Earth.
Luna-25 – visualizationnssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
Today, India and China have joined the space competition. India sent the Chandrayaan-3 lander to the Moon in July, which should land on the Silver Globe two days after the Luna landing and in the vicinity. China was the first country in the world to land its lander on the lunar hemisphere invisible from Earth, and the United States plans to send astronauts to the South Pole later this decade as part of the Artemis program supported by Canada and European countries.
Main photo source: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov