MOSCOW—Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after spinning into an uncontrolled orbit, according to the country's space agency Roscosmos on Sunday.
“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” read a statement from the agency.
Roscosmos said it lost communication with the spacecraft on Saturday after it encountered difficulties while preparing for its pre-landing orbit and reported a "abnormal situation" that its specialists were investigating. "During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters," the agency wrote on Telegram.
The spacecraft was supposed to settle on the moon's south pole on Monday. Scientists are particularly interested in the lunar south pole because they believe the continuously shadowed polar craters may hold frozen water in the rocks that future explorers may convert into air and rocket fuel.
The Russian lunar lander was racing against an Indian spacecraft launched on July 14 to settle on Earth's satellite. Both were projected to reach the moon between August 21 and August 23.
Only the Soviet Union, the United States, and China have made successful lunar landings, but not on the moon's south pole. India and Russia have been competing to be the first to arrive there.
In 2019, an Indian effort to land near the moon's south pole failed when the lander collided with the moon's surface.
Roscosmos stated that it aimed to demonstrate that Russia "is a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon," as well as "ensure Russia's guaranteed access to the moon's surface."
Sanctions imposed on Russia since its activities in Ukraine have made it more difficult for the country to obtain Western technologies, affecting its space program. The Luna-25 was originally intended to carry a tiny lunar rover, but that plan was scrapped in order to lower the weight of the vehicle and enhance dependability, according to experts.
On August 11, the Luna-25 launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East. The spaceport is a favorite project of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and it is critical to Russia's ambitions to become a space powerhouse.
Russia's first launch since 1976, when it was a member of the Soviet Union, occurred earlier this month.
