Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft has crashed into the Moon after spinning into an uncontrolled orbit, officials say.

The unmanned craft was due to make a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole, but failed after encountering issues as it moved into its pre-landing orbit.

It was Russia’s first Moon mission in almost 50 years.

The spacecraft was scheduled to land on Monday to explore a part of the Moon which scientists think could hold frozen water and precious elements.

Roskosmos, Russia’s state space corporation, said it lost contact with the Luna-25 shortly after running into difficulties.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    You know those pictures taken from the Moon of the Earth? The ones where you can barely make out big islands like Cuba?

    No one on the Earth will know anything is going on up there unless they have a very powerful telescope.

    • GoosLife@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, that’s true. We would be talking about terraforming projects on an enormous scale, unlike anything we’ve seen before.

      What I’m saying is just that, if it came to that, I can understand wanting to preserve the surface of the moon, for sentimental and/or historical, human reasons, even though preserving the surface also doesn’t provide any real, practical benefit.