spacetoday.net: Luna-25 crashes on the Moon

Posted: Fri, Aug 25, 2023, 7:12 PM ET (2312 GMT)
Russia's Luna-25 lunar lander crashed over the weekend while performing an orbital maneuver. Roscosmos said that the spacecraft encountered an "emergency situation" during the maneuver early Saturday, which was intended to place the spacecraft into a final orbit before a landing then scheduled for Monday. By early Sunday, Roscosmos acknowledged that the spacecraft had crashed but did not provide further details about its cause. Unofficial accounts suggest that the spacecraft fired its thrusters for longer than planned during that maneuver, although it is not clear why. Luna-25 had planned to land near the south polar region of the Moon on Russia's first lunar mission in nearly half a century. The failure could raise new doubts in China about partnering with Russia on the International Lunar Research Station project announced two years ago. Meanwhile, India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft remains on track for a landing attempt on the Moon Wednesday morning.