SummaryCompanies Russia moon mission failsLuna-25 crashes into the moonFailure is a blow to Russian space prestigeSoviet space veteran: Luna-25 was my last hopeMOSCOW, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.
Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit.
Though moon missions are fiendishly difficult, and many U.S. and Soviet attempts have failed, Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin.
Russian officials had hoped that the Luna-25 mission would show Russia can compete with the superpowers in space despite its post-Soviet decline and the vast cost of the Ukraine war.
"This was perhaps the last hope for me to see a revival of our lunar program," he said.
Persons:
Luna, Roskosmos, Yuri Gagarin, Leonid Brezhnev, Anatoly Zak, Zak, Mikhail Marov, Marov, Guy Faulconbridge, Christina Fincher, Frances Kerry
Organizations:
Kremlin, India, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, YP Rajesh, Thomson
Locations:
Russia, MOSCOW, Moscow, Soviet, Europe, Tenerife, China, United States, Handout, Ukraine, Soviet Union, India, Delhi