BAIKONUR, September 15The Luna-25 automatic interplanetary station crashed due to malfunctioning accelerometers, said Roscosmos General Director Yuri Borisov.
“< p>"The correction engine did not stop operating based on information from the accelerometer. This is the device that shows changes in speed. The reason is that the accelerometers did not turn on,” he said at a press conference.
According to Borisov, experts are looking into the reasons for what happened. He clarified that there are now 16 versions, 11 of which have already been checked. The investigation is scheduled to be completed by the end of September.
The general director of the state corporation added that he received the first words of support “in this unpleasant situation” from NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
The Soyuz 2.1b rocket with the first domestic lunar station in almost 50 years launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2:11 Moscow time on August 11. On August 16, the device entered lunar orbit. On August 19, a transition to the pre-landing orbit was expected, and a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon was expected on August 21.
On August 19, an abnormal situation occurred on board the station. As Roscosmos clarified, the incident did not allow the transition to the pre-landing orbit with the specified parameters. The next day, the state corporation reported that Luna-25 switched to an off-design orbit, collided with the Moon and ceased to exist.
Later, Borisov stated that the Luna-25 engine, when trying to switch to a pre-drop orbit, worked for 127 seconds instead of 84 , as a result of which the device crashed into the Earth satellite.