Lunar Lander Update – Luna-25 Has A Problem

Luna-25 engine burn

Roscosmos

Today the Luna-25 spacecraft was attempting a burn into a pre-landing orbit when an anomaly occurred and the maneuver did not go as planned. This may result in a new landing site and a new landing date. Meanwhile India’s Chandrayaan-3 is doing fine and planning a 23 Aug landing.

Roscosmos has confirmed the loss via Telegram (translation) “On August 19, in accordance with the flight program of the Luna-25 spacecraft, an impulse was provided for the formation of its pre-landing elliptical orbit. At about 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted. The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results. According to the results of a preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface. A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the Moon.”

Earlier post

Today the Luna-25 spacecraft was attempting a burn into a pre-landing orbit when an anomaly occurred and the maneuver did not go as planned. This may result in a new landing site and a new landing date. Meanwhile India’s Chandrayaan-3 is doing fine and planning a 23 Aug landing.

The following was posted on Telegram by Roscosmos (automated translation): “Today, in accordance with the Luna-25 flight program, at 14:10 an impulse was issued to transfer the station to the pre-landing orbit. During the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters. The management team is currently analyzing the situation.”

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