lpetrich
Contributor
Recently, two nations have landed spacecraft on the Moon, one successfully, and one a failure. List of missions to the Moon
Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure | Reuters
Luna 25 ("Moon 25")
It was launched on 10 August 2023 and it entered lunar orbit on 16 August, with an expected landing date of 21 August. From Wikipedia,
Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure | Reuters
Luna 25 ("Moon 25")
It was launched on 10 August 2023 and it entered lunar orbit on 16 August, with an expected landing date of 21 August. From Wikipedia,
On 19 August, Roscosmos declared an "abnormal situation" after commanding the lander to move into a pre-landing orbit.[32][33] According to Director General of Roscosmos Yuri Borisov, a maneuvering engine could not be shut down, and ran for 127 seconds instead of 84.[34] The lander crashed on the lunar surface following the failed maneuver,[11][35][36] which created a trajectory that intersected with the Moon instead of a planned elliptical orbit with a minimum distance of 18km.[37]
Roscosmos said that it had lost contact with the spacecraft 47 minutes after the start of the engine firing.[38] Attempts on 19 and 20 August to locate and re-establish contact with the spacecraft were unsuccessful,[36] and a commission was formed to investigate the crash.[36]
The LRO camera team located the likely location of the impact crater, after an estimate was published by Russian researchers. The crash site is situated on the steep inner rim of the Pontécoulant G crater, which is only 400 kilometers short of Luna 25’s intended landing point if it did attempt a landing procedure.[39]