Russia’s Luna-25 Crashes While Attempting A Soft Landing On The Moon: All Hopes On Chandrayaan-3 Vikram Lander

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos confirmed the dreaded news that its Luna-25 moon lander mission lost contact, and has most probably crashed on the lunar surface. This means that India's Vikram lander is now the only one left to try and land on the Moon and release the Pragyan rover.

The Luna-25 appeared to have a near-perfect trajectory before losing communication with ground control. Let's look at the possible reasons and how India's Chandrayaan-3 is prepared to handle the very challenges Luna-25 may have failed to handle.

What Happened To Did Russian Luna-25 Moon Lander?

Russia's state space agency, Roskosmos, confirmed it lost contact with the Luna-25 mission at 11:57 AM GMT (5:27 PM IST) on Saturday. According to the latest logs, the spacecraft was attempting the most critical part of the mission, which is altitude and velocity reduction.

The Luna-25 mission operated as per plan right until the primary propulsion vehicle ejected the lander module and the latter began its gradual descent. In other words, the problems started after the de-boosting phase has begun.

According to the official statement from Roskosmos, "the apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon"

Although an inquiry has been ordered, the most likely reason that several experts cite is the cascading errors and failure to rectify them in time. Although quite premature to conclude, it is possible that the Luna-25 mission faced the same hurdles that caused the Chandrayaan-2 to fail.

Russia's last mission to the Moon was the Luna-24, way back in 1976. In other words, it took the country about half a decade (47 years to be precise) to send another unmanned rocket to the Moon. The Luna 24 mission successfully collected a drill core sample from Mare Crisium and returned it to Earth automatically.

Will Chandrayaan-3 Succeed Where Luna-25 Failed?

The Chandrayaan-3 mission has been quite successful so far. There have been no glitches and the software embedded has been performing flawlessly.

Additionally, the Chandrayaan-3 has several upgrades and improvements, made after studying the Chandrayaan-2 mission and its causes for failure. The mission's head had recently proclaimed that the Vikram Lander and its velocity as well as altitude guidance and control systems have been finetuned to achieve a soft landing even in the grimmest circumstances.

The Vikran Lander, which houses the Pragyan Rover, is supposed to land on the Moon on August 23. Hence, the world will now tune its attention to India's lunar mission.