Luna-25, a Russian spacecraft, crashes into the Moon

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The first Moon landing attempt by Russia since 1976 was unsuccessful. Roscosmos, the government-run space agency of Russia, confirmed that the Luna-25 spacecraft had rammed into the Moon ten days after its August 10 launch. "The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," Roscosmos said in a statement. Before disclosing the crash information, the organization initially described the incident as a "abnormal situation." 

Credit: Associated Press

Luna-25 was on its way to the south pole to look for water ice and spend a year studying how it formed there to determine whether there was a connection with the emergence of water on Earth. Additionally, it was planned to test out technology and look at the regolith, the soil that covers the moon's rock. It was supposed to spend five days in the moon's orbit before coming to rest on August 21. Prior to the collision, Luna-25 captured a number of images, one of which was of the Zeeman crater near the moon's south pole.

🌘 Welcome to the other side of the #moon!

👉 Russia's #Luna25 has shared first pics of lunar surface – they show Zeeman crater on the moon's far side.

The ultimate goal is to land on the moon's South Pole in search of water. Looking forward to new amazing photos from space 😍 pic.twitter.com/kRlnJBFLwM

— Russia 🇷🇺 (@Russia) August 19, 2023

It would have been the first craft to successfully land on the south pole; however, India may now claim that distinction. India's spacecraft, which launched on July 14 and is scheduled to land on the Moon on August 23, was India's main rival in the race.

Globally, nations are preparing for their own moon missions. According to current plans, humans will visit the Moon in 2025 and orbit it in 2024. Israel, China, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and other countries all have active moon-travel plans.

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