Russian Space Agency Reports Technical Issue with Luna-25 Mission
Russia’s national space agency Roskosmos reported that an “unusual event” took place on Saturday during the preparations for the transfer of Luna-25 spacecraft to its pre-landing orbit.
A Russian spacecraft is set to land on the moon’s south pole on Monday as part of a major race to explore a part of the moon where scientists believe there may be frozen water and precious elements.
“During the procedure, an abnormal situation occurred at the automatic station that did not allow the control to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roskosmos said in a brief statement.
Experts are analyzing the situation, it said, without giving further details.
Earlier, Roskosmos said that it had received the first results from the Luna-25 flight and that they are being analyzed.
The agency also released spacecraft images of the moon’s Zeeman crater. The crater is the third deepest in the moon’s southern hemisphere, measuring 190 km (118 mi) in diameter and eight kilometers (five mi) across.
Roskosmos said that the data it has received so far has provided information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil and will also facilitate the operation of equipment that explores the lunar surface.
It added that its instruments have registered a “micrometeorite impact”.
Luna-25 entered lunar orbit on Wednesday, the first Russian spacecraft since 1976.
About the size of a small car, it aims to operate for a year at the South Pole, where scientists from NASA and other space agencies have observed frozen water in craters in recent years.
The presence of water affects large space forces, allowing humans to stay longer on the Moon, which would allow the extraction of lunar resources.
