On Sunday, the Russian space agency announced that the Luna-25 spacecraft had crashed on the Moon, clearing the way for India’s Chandrayaan-3 to make history as the first spacecraft to land near the lunar south pole.
Chandrayaan-3 entered its pre-landing orbit of 25 km x 134 km from the lunar surface early on Sunday morning. The spacecraft is slated to touch down on the moon on Wednesday. The spacecraft would begin its fall from this orbit at roughly 5:45 pm IST on Wednesday. After fifteen minutes, we anticipate a successful touchdown.
On Monday, August 21, Luna-25 was supposed to land softly on the Moon’s surface, two days before Chandrayaan-3. The two of them were scheduled to touch down near the south pole of the moon. However, difficulties arose on Saturday as the Russian spacecraft attempted to enter the landing orbit.
Saturday, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that the spacecraft was experiencing “an emergency situation” that prevented the orbit-reduction operation from being completed. It, too, had lost touch with the spaceship. The government organisation claimed it was working to fix the issue.
Roscosmos confirmed the mission’s disappointing end on Sunday afternoon, saying that Luna-25 had crash-landed on the lunar surface. Roscosmos announced in a statement that efforts made on August 19 (Saturday) and 20 (Sunday) to locate Luna-25 and make contact with it had been fruitless.
The report concluded that “the automatic station switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones.”
The contemporary Russian space programme began with the Luna-25 mission. In 1976, the Soviet Union’s Luna-24 mission successfully landed on the moon. Until China’s Chang’e-3 landed in 2013, it was the last spacecraft to touch down on the Moon by 37 years. Since then, only Chang’e-4 has successfully touched down on the Moon.
India, Israel, Japan, and now Russia are the four nations that have tried and failed to perform a soft landing on the lunar surface over the past four years. Each of these spacecraft experienced terminal malfunctions and crashed to Earth. This Wednesday, India may break the record with the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft; however, Japan plans to make another try later this month with the launch of the SLIM spacecraft.
If Luna-25 had been successful, it would have been the first lander to touch down near the south pole of the Moon. So far, every landing has taken place near the equator. Now that Luna-25 is out of the way, Chandrayaan-3 has a chance to claim this accomplishment for itself. The target landing zone for both craft on the Moon was 70 degrees south latitude.
Wednesday marks the beginning of the lunar day, which lasts around 14 days on Earth, and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reported that Chandrayaan-3 was functioning normally and preparing for its scheduled descent.
After passing its own tests, the module would wait for sunrise at the chosen landing spot (on the Moon). ISRO has announced that the powered descent will begin on August 23, 2023, at approximately 17:45 hours IST.
