Moscow

Russia's Luna-25 lunar probe failed due to abnormal operation aboard its control system, the State Space Corporation Roscosmos disclosed. 

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"The interagency commission is wrapping up its work to find the reasons for the abnormal operation of the Luna-25 automatic station in the lunar orbit. It has been established that Luna-25 most likely crashed due to the abnormal operation of the onboard control system resulting from a failure of the accelerometer unit in the BIUS-L device (the angle velocity measuring instrument) after commands with different priorities of their fulfilment possibly entered into one array of data," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Russian space mission failed: What exactly happened?

While the Russian space agency said that the malfunction appears to have been caused by a failure in the accelerometer unit within the BIUS-L device, it finally resulted in conflicting commands with varying priorities entering the data stream, TASS reported.

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Also watch | Gravitas: Chandrayaan-3 vs Russia's Luna-25 race to the moon

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This, TASS report added, resulted in a lack of signals from the accelerometers, preventing the system from determining the correct moment to apply corrective impulses and switch off the propulsion unit, ultimately leading to the probe's temporary shutdown.

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What next?

The investigation commission will now provide recommendations to prevent such incidents in future lunar missions.

The Luna-25 probe was launched aboard a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket from the Vostochny spaceport, with its mission ending when it crashed into the Moon's surface after losing contact.

According to preliminary data, Luna-25 ceased to exist after crashing into the Moon’s surface. The event led to the dashing of Russian hopes to beat India to the unexplored south pole of the moon.

The two countries share an intimate history of space cooperation with India's first person in space, Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma going to space aboard a Soviet spacecraft in the 1980s.

Indian Air Force's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, flight engineer Gennady Strekalov and commander Yury Malyshev alongside screengrabs of the-then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's interaction with Rakesh Sharma

Indian Air Force's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma (centre), flight engineer Gennady Strekalov (L) and commander Yury Malyshev (R) alongside the screengrabs of the-then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's interaction with Rakesh Sharma | spacefacts.de/YouTube via Indian National Congress

An Indian spacecraft, the Vikram lander of Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-3 mission, landed there on August 23.

What does it mean?

The failure of Russian lunar mission coincided with the success of Indian mission to Moon. 

Also read | Chandrayaan-3 is success: A soft landing for Vikram lander, giant leap for India's space odyssey

The failure underscored the decline of Russia’s space power since the Soviet Union heydays of Cold War competition when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth – Sputnik 1, in 1957 – and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.

(With inputs from agencies)

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