NASA publishes image of Moon crater, presumably created by Luna-25’s fall

September 1, 2023 08:42

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has taken an image of a new crater on the Moon’s surface, presumably formed by the crash of Russia’s Luna-25 robotic station, Report informs referring to TASS.

The image of the crater was published on NASA’s website.

The Soyuz-2.1b vehicle carrying the Luna-25 autonomous probe was launched from the Vostochny spaceport in the early hours of August 11. The spacecraft adjusted its flight path twice on August 12 and 14. The unmanned probe entered near-lunar orbit on August 16, and was scheduled to land on the surface of the moon on August 21.

However, communication with the lunar lander was lost after the spacecraft received an impulse to activate its pre-landing elliptical orbit on August 19.

Roscosmos Director General Yury Borisov said that an ad hoc commission had been set up to investigate the causes of the failed Luna-25 mission. He specified that the abnormal operation of the lunar probe’s thrusters in its orbit adjustment was behind the automatic station’s crash: the engines operated for 127 seconds instead of the scheduled 84.