Russia's initial lunar venture in many years comes to a disappointing conclusion as Luna-25 collides with the lunar terrain, shifting attention to Chandrayaan-3 at this point.

Roskosmos, formally known as the Russian Federal Space Agency or "Russian Federalnoye Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo," is a governmental entity established in 1992 to oversee the management of Russia's space initiatives. Its central operations are based in Moscow.

During Sunday afternoon, Roscosmos revealed the unfortunate outcome of Luna-25 crash-landing on the lunar landscape, marking a disheartening conclusion to the project. Simultaneously, preparations are underway for the descent of Chandrayaan-3, expected to occur at approximately 5.45 pm IST on Wednesday.

Russia's Luna-25 has experienced a crash on the lunar terrain, as declared by the nation's space agency on Sunday. This marks a regrettable conclusion to its inaugural lunar mission, occurring 47 years subsequent to the former Soviet Union's previous landing on the moon.

This positions India's Chandrayaan-3 to potentially achieve the distinction of being the initial spacecraft to touch down close to the lunar south pole.

During the morning hours of Sunday, the Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 transitioned to its designated pre-landing orbit, situated at a distance of 25 km x 134 km from the moon's surface, as part of its readiness for the anticipated landing on Wednesday.

It is from this orbital path that the spacecraft will initiate its descent at approximately 1745 IST on Wednesday, with an expected touchdown within a 15-minute span.

The Indian Space Research Organisation confirmed that Chandrayaan-3 is operating without issues and is in the process of preparing for its scheduled descent on Wednesday, aligning with the commencement of the lunar daytime phase that corresponds to about 14 days on Earth.

According to ISRO, the module will undergo internal assessments and await the sunrise at the designated lunar landing site. The powered descent phase is anticipated to initiate at around 1745 hours IST on August 23, 2023.

In contrast, the Luna-25's intended soft landing on the lunar surface, originally planned for August 21, was scheduled two days prior to Chandrayaan-3. Both missions were intended to achieve landings within the vicinity of the Moon's south pole region.

However, the Russian spacecraft encountered difficulties on Saturday as it endeavored to transition into a pre-landing orbit. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, indicated that an "emergency situation" emerged within the spacecraft, preventing the completion of the planned orbit-reduction maneuver. Additionally, communication with the spacecraft was lost, prompting efforts to resolve the issue.

Subsequently, on Sunday afternoon, Roscosmos officially reported that Luna-25 had unfortunately crash-landed on the lunar surface. Despite the efforts taken on both August 19 (Saturday) and 20 (Sunday) to locate and establish contact with Luna-25, no positive outcomes were achieved, as stated by Roscosmos in an official statement.

The preliminary analysis revealed that the deviation of actual impulse parameters from their calculated values caused the automatic station to shift to an unintended orbit and eventually collide with the lunar surface, leading to its cessation.

Luna-25 represented Russia's modern debut lunar mission, signifying the first since the Soviet Union's previous lunar endeavor back in 1976, which culminated in a successful landing by Luna-24. Remarkably, Luna-24 was the final spacecraft to touch down on the Moon until China's Chang'e-3 accomplished this feat 37 years later in 2013. The subsequent lunar landings have been achieved solely by China's Chang'e-4 in January 2019 and Chang'e-5, a sample return mission, in December 2020.

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Writer : Rajesh Keswani