NASA has identified a new crater on the Moon, suspected to be the result of the crash of Russia’s Luna-25 lander last month. The landing was part of Russia’s attempt to resume lunar exploration after nearly half a century, focusing on collecting samples from the moon’s south pole, an area believed to contain water ice .
The discovery came after the Russian space agency Roscosmos shared its own estimate of the Luna-25 crash site. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later captured images showing the new crater, about 10 meters in diameter, located on the inner rim of the already existing Pontecoulant G crater. The location is about 250 miles from where intended to land Luna-25.
Russian authorities mentioned that an unexpected problem occurred with the spacecraft before its failed descent. The incident took place on August 19, and Roscosmos blamed the accident on its long hiatus from lunar missions.
The Luna-25 mission was launched from Russia’s far eastern Vostochny spaceport, a venture heavily supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was aimed at strengthening Russia’s capabilities in space exploration, especially after the country lost access to Western technology following its actions in Ukraine.
Interestingly, just days after the Luna-25 failure, India’s Chandrayaan-3 became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the South Pole of the Moon. Russia is now focusing on developing its own space station as it plans to exit the International Space Station partnership.
This article is sourced from and written by AI.
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