INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Luna-25 probe, Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years, has crashed on the Earth's natural satellite after an unspecified
incident during pre-landing maneuvers, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said Sunday.The crash comes almost a year and a half into Russia's
Ukraine offensive that has seen Moscow isolated, with punishing sanctions that have affected its space industry.The failed mission comes as
of innovation and partnerships.Communication with Luna-25 was lost at 2:57 p.m
(11:57 GMT) on Saturday, Roscosmos said.According to preliminary findings, the lander "has ceased to exist following a collision with the
Moon's surface.""Measures taken on August 19 and 20 to locate the craft and make contact with it were unsuccessful," the space agency
added.It said a ministerial investigation would be opened into the causes of the crash, without giving any indication of what technical
problems might have occurred.With Luna-25, Moscow had hoped to build on the legacy of its Soviet-era Luna program, marking a return to
independent Moon exploration in the face of financial troubles and corruption scandals at the programme and growing isolation from the
West.Valery Yegorov, a former researcher with Russia's space programme who now lives in exile, said the crash would severely affect
Roscosmos's future missions, with the next one not planned until 2028 or "even later."He suggested the probe's failure was linked to
electronic problems, possibly resulting from Western sanctions on Moscow.The Luna-25 launch was postponed several times in the last five
years, Yegorov said, "because of sanctions imposed on Russia in response to seizing Crimea."Research 'not a priority'"Science, fundamental
research, some kind of humanistic ideas about space colonization, about revealing the secrets of the universe, are clearly not a priority
right now," said Yegorov, who has denounced the Kremlin's Ukraine offensive.The 800-kilogram (1,760-pound) Luna-25 probe was to have made a
chief Yuri Borisov had said the venture would be "risky," telling President Vladimir Putin in June that the probability of it succeeding was
"around 70%."Luna-25 had been successfully placed in the Moon's orbit on Wednesday after being launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the
Russian Far East.Space raceBut on Saturday, Roscosmos said an "emergency" had been detected during a maneuver by the probe before its
landing, preventing the operation from being carried out.Luna-25 had been expected to stay on the Moon for a year, collecting soil samples
living there.Cameras installed on the lander had already taken shots of the lunar surface.Doubts had already emerged about Russia's
long-running space cooperation with the West in the wake of its military campaign in Ukraine.While Russia has said it intends to use the
International Space Station until 2028, the European Space Agency (ESA) has dropped plans to cooperate with Moscow on Moon and Mars
Venus and building the Mir space station.Landing Luna-25 successfully would have paved the way for further Russian missions to the Moon, at
a time when India and China are launching their own probes and the United States returns to manned missions.India's competing space probe,
Chandrayaan-3, entered the Moon's orbit earlier in August, also with the goal of landing on the south pole.Only Russia, the United States
and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the Moon.
