Emergency Detected During Russia’s Moon Landing Mission

• Incident occurred during thrust release to adjust probe’s trajectory for landing.
• Unclear if incident will delay planned landing at lunar south pole.
• Russia determined to pursue lunar plans despite strained relations with the West.

Russia’s Luna-25 probe, on its way to land on the Moon, encountered an “emergency” situation during a manoeuvre, as reported by the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The space agency stated that an attempt to adjust the probe’s trajectory for landing resulted in an unforeseen issue that prevented the manoeuvre from being completed as intended.

The Luna-25 lander, Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly five decades, had been successfully placed in the Moon’s orbit earlier after its launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome. However, Roscosmos did not clarify whether this incident would lead to a delay in the scheduled landing, which is planned for Monday, at a site north of the Boguslawsky crater on the lunar south pole.

Roscosmos Chief Yuri Borisov previously communicated to President Vladimir Putin that such missions are inherently risky, with an estimated success rate of approximately 70%. The Luna-25 mission aims to stay on the Moon for a year, focusing on collecting samples and analyzing the lunar soil. Cameras aboard the lander have already captured images of the Earth and Moon from space.

Amid uncertainties about its space collaboration with the West due to the situation in Ukraine, Russia has been working to reinvigorate its space program. While the European Space Agency declined cooperation with Moscow on future missions, Russia expressed its determination to proceed with its lunar exploration plans.

The Luna-25 spacecraft is anticipated to land on the Moon’s south pole, a region of great interest due to the potential presence of frozen water and valuable elements. Roscosmos reported receiving initial results from the mission and stated that data analysis is ongoing. Images of the moon’s Zeeman crater, one of the deepest in the lunar southern hemisphere, were shared by the agency. The crater measures 190 km in diameter and 8 km (approximately five miles) in depth.

Roscosmos also noted that their equipment detected an event consistent with a micrometeorite impact. The successful entry of Luna-25 into the Moon’s orbit marked the first time a Russian spacecraft had achieved this since 1976. About the size of a small car, the lander is designed to function for a year on the moon’s surface, where indications of frozen water have been identified in recent years by space agencies like NASA. The presence of water on the moon has significant implications for potential future lunar exploration and resource utilization.

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