The Luna-25, the first Russian lunar lander in nearly 50 years, was due to enter the pre-landing orbit around the same time as the Chandrayaan-3 lander module but the manoeuvre was unsuccessful.
The Luna-25, the first Russian lunar lander in nearly 50 years, wasn't able to enter its scheduled pre-landing orbit of the Moon. According to a statement from the Russian space organisation Roscosmos, the robotic spacecraft was scheduled to enter the orbit on Saturday, but owing to an emergency circumstance, the manoeuvre was failed. Without providing any other information, the team claimed that it is examining the issue.
“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the manoeuvre to be performed with the specified parameters," Roscosmos said in a Telegram post.
Roscosmos stated that the crew is evaluating the problem, but the agency also revealed that its equipment had detected a "micrometeorite impact" and that the early data from the moon mission includes information on the chemical components of the lunar soil.
Russia launched the craft last week, joining a race with NASA and other space agencies.It's scheduled to land on the moon's south pole on Aug. 21, Roscosmos said earlier. It's not immediately clear if the plan still stands.
The US and China are two space-faring nations that have their eyes set on the lunar south pole. This week, India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which is now orbiting the Moon, is expected to try to land close to the pole.
Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft, which was launched on August 10 and is slated to touch down on August 21, will be followed by India's third lunar mission on August 23, which will also make a gentle landing on the moon's south pole. On August 16, Luna-25 joined Chandrayaan-3 in the lunar orbit.