Luna-25 fails to enter orbit for landing on Moon
Though it is in lunar orbit, Russia’s Luna-25 lander today was unable to perform an engine burn as planned to place it in its final orbit for landing.
“Today, in accordance with the flight program of the Luna-25 probe, at 2:10 p.m. Moscow time, a command was issued to the probe to enter the pre-landing orbit. During the operation an emergency occurred on the space probe that did not allow it to perform the maneuver in accordance with the required parameters,” Roscosmos said.
Engineers are analyzing the issue, but no other information was released.
This issue could simply be the spacecraft’s computer aborted the engine burn because it sensed something not right, and that after some correction another burn can follow later. Under this circumstance the landing attempt would simply be delayed.
It is also possible something happened during that engine burn, and the spacecraft is either in an incorrect orbit, or might even be lost entirely. Stay tuned.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Though it is in lunar orbit, Russia’s Luna-25 lander today was unable to perform an engine burn as planned to place it in its final orbit for landing.
“Today, in accordance with the flight program of the Luna-25 probe, at 2:10 p.m. Moscow time, a command was issued to the probe to enter the pre-landing orbit. During the operation an emergency occurred on the space probe that did not allow it to perform the maneuver in accordance with the required parameters,” Roscosmos said.
Engineers are analyzing the issue, but no other information was released.
This issue could simply be the spacecraft’s computer aborted the engine burn because it sensed something not right, and that after some correction another burn can follow later. Under this circumstance the landing attempt would simply be delayed.
It is also possible something happened during that engine burn, and the spacecraft is either in an incorrect orbit, or might even be lost entirely. Stay tuned.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
It is now being reported that they have lost contact with the spacecraft.
Slava Ukrainia! I don’t know how they did it, but more power to them!
I am not going to cheer for the Russians, or even wish them well. But I do not wish ill on any entity that is peacefully opening the space frontier no matter my personal feelings.
ASAT and orbital weapons tests do not fit the peaceful categories
Up next Chandrayaan-3. Practice makes perfect…we can hope.
Taiwan may need ASAT capabilities, and soon.
No Humans onboard…
so GOOD.
Another result of Putin raiding space budgets and making life hard on his people.
It’s a pity and now official: Luna 25 crashed onto the lunar surface.
Roscomos says:
On August 19, in accordance with the flight program of the Luna-25 spacecraft, an impulse was provided for the formation of its pre-landing elliptical orbit.
At about 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted.
The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and get into contact with it did not produce any results.
According to the results of a preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface.
A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the Moon.
https://t.me/s/roscosmos_gk
Multiple reports are stating that Luna-25 has crashed into the moon. Apparently the orbit-lowering burn lasted too long and de-orbited the spacecraft.
Lithobraking achieved!
Seeing spacecraft fail is heartbreaking. All the work you put into building something only to have an error somewhere in production bring it all to a horrible end. I hope the engineers figure out the cause and are given the time and budget to try again.
John and Joe I agree. The majority of commenters on other media are, however, cheering this disappointment.
Operation SPLAT => Space Probe Luna Attains Target!
“The agency clarified Sunday that contact was lost with the spacecraft around 7:57 a.m. Eastern. Measures taken Aug. 19 and 20 to reestablish contact with Luna-25 were not successful, according to the Aug. 20 statement.
“A preliminary analysis revealed that a deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from those calculated resulted in the spacecraft colliding with the lunar surface, according to a machine translation of the statement.
“A specially formed interdepartmental commission will deal with the issues of clarifying the reasons for the loss of the Moon,” the statement read.
https://spacenews.com/luna-25-crashes-into-moon-after-orbit-maneuver/
That is disappointing. I kind of admire the Russian people for stoically identifying with and supporting their country despite the terrible predicament they are currently facing. By contrast, look how many Americans so often turn against others in their own country. Chris Christie – yech.
“Loss of the Moon” – as far as I can tell, it’s still there.
“Loss of the Moon” … Hmmm, as far as I can tell, it’s still there.
Sorry for dup, please delete
I agree especially with Joe, “Seeing spacecraft fail is heartbreaking. All the work you put into building something only to have an error somewhere in production bring it all to a horrible end.”
Luna-25 was a quarter-century in the making — for many workers, half a career could have crashed on the moon, yesterday.
The error may not have been in production, where I include design as well as software coding as production, but could have been in operations. An incorrect value may have been sent up with the command to execute the engine burn.
The 1960s and 1970s made landing on the Moon look easy, but even the U.S. had troubles in the beginning of its lunar program. The first couple of U.S. lunar probes missed entirely, and the next few weren’t even designed to soft land but to hit the Moon in a crash landing. Eventually, the U.S. Surveyor probes made landing on the Moon look easy and routine, and Apollo and the previous Soviet Luna probes confirmed that opinion. Even China has managed to put a few probes on the Moon and one on Mars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_program
Apollo 12 was able to land within walking distance of Surveyor 3. See how easy it looks to land on the Moon?
The world’s launch industry has made launches look easy, rather than the difficulty that they are, and SpaceX and JPL have made landing look routine. SpaceX lands tall boosters on a rockin’ and a-rollin’ boat, barely larger than the booster’s footprint, and JPL lands on far-away worlds.
It may look easy peasy, but it is not. Even “routine” spaceflight brings new surprises. We keep finding new problems that must be overcome.