The Russian station «Luna-25» crashed on the surface of the Moon, as its engine did not turn off in time. This was announced on the air of the Russia 24 channel by the head of Roskosmos Yuri Borisov.
“Unfortunately, the engine shutdown did not occur normally, in accordance with the cyclogram, but according to a time cutoff, and instead of the planned 84 seconds, it worked for 127 seconds. This was the main reason for the accident of the device, ”said Borisov.
According to him, due to the extra 43 seconds of operation, the device switched to «an open lunar orbit and, in fact, crashed into the surface of the satellite.»
Communication with Luna-25 was lost on the afternoon of August 19th. On August 20, Roskosmos acknowledged the collapse of the station.
Luna-25 was launched on August 11 from the Vostochny cosmodrome. It was expected that on August 20 it would land in the region of the little-studied South Pole of the Moon, where signs of water ice were found, and work there for a year. Five days before the collision with the natural satellite of the Earth, the station transmitted several images from space.