A photo of the “grave” of the Russian station was published.
The U.S. National Space Agency (NASA) has published fresh images of the moon’s surface, which showed the appearance of a new crater. According to scientists, this crater could have been caused by the crash of the Russian Luna-25 spacecraft.
A message about this observation was posted on the official NASA website. The image of the Moon’s surface was taken by NASA’s LRO orbiter.
Crashed Russian mission left crater on moon, NASA images show https://t.co/rIbSZ9Ypaw pic.twitter.com/4ipg1rQ0R1
– Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) September 1, 2023
According to the agency, the new crater is likely to be connected to the crash site of the Russian Luna 25 mission. This vehicle, designed for a soft landing on the Moon, crashed on August 19. The photos of the crater were taken five days after the incident, on August 24. The crater is about 10 meters in diameter and is located inside a larger crater called Ponteculan G.
The fall of the Russian “Luna-25” station may have caused the formation of a new crater on the Moon’s surface – NASA
NASA publishes images of the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The first photo, where there is no crater, is dated June 27, 2020, the second, with a crater -… pic.twitter.com/cFpzd9Hvpk
– NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 1, 2023
According to NASA representatives, the impact point of Luna 25 is located about 400 kilometers from the place where the soft landing of the vehicle was planned.
This incident was a major setback for the Russian space program, which had spent many years and considerable money on the mission.
Due to engine problems, the vehicle failed to complete the task and collided with the Earth’s satellite instead of landing safely. This unfortunate incident becomes even more important given that shortly afterwards India successfully delivered its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to the lunar surface, becoming the fourth country, after the USSR, the US and China, to make such an achievement.
