Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and smashed into the moon. Luna-25 was supposed to execute a soft landing on the south pole of the moon on Aug. 21, according to Russian space officials.

Spacecraft encountered a debilitating problem while preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme. “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement.

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said an “abnormal situation” occurred as mission control tried to move the craft into a pre-landing orbit at 11:10 GMT on Saturday.

It lost communication with the craft at 2:57 pm on Aug 19,2023  (5.27 am IST on Aug 20,2023).

Roskosmos said a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft, whose mission had raised hopes in Moscow that Russia was returning to the big power moon race.

(reuters)