Russia’s first mission to the moon in 5 decades has ended in failure, as their Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the surface on approach.
The unmanned vessel, which launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome earlier this month, crashed on the moon’s surface Saturday. Not much is known about the cause of the failure, but officials called it an “abnormal situation.”
The launch marked Russia’s first attempt to approach the moon since 1976 … the goal was to attempt a landing near the moon’s south pole.
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said they lost contact with the craft Saturday afternoon stating, “spacecraft entered an unplanned orbit and ceased to exist after colliding with the surface of the Moon.”
All additional efforts to make contact have since failed.