NASA said its orbiter likely found the crash site of Russia's failed Luna-25 moon mission

Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY
·3 min read
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft imaged a new crater on the Moon’s surface that is likely the impact site of Russia’s Luna 25 mission. The most recent "before" image (left) of the area was captured in June 27, 2020. LRO’s “after” image of the area (right) was captured in on Aug. 24, 2023. During its descent, Luna 25 experienced an anomaly that caused it to impact the surface of the Moon on Aug. 19. Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, published an estimate of the impact point on Aug. 21. The LROC (short for LRO Camera) team and the LRO Mission Operations team were able to design and send commands to the LRO spacecraft on Aug. 22 to capture images of the site. The sequence began on Aug. 24 at 2:15 p.m. EDT (18:15 UTC) and was completed about four hours later, at 6:12 p.m. EDT (22:12 UTC). The LROC team compared images taken prior to the impact time and the sequence taken after and found a small new crater.

Officials at NASA believe they have found the crash site of the Luna-25 spacecraft, Russia's failed lunar lander.

The space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged a new crater on the Moon's surface last week that had not been there before, leading NASA to conclude that the location is likely the impact site of Luna-25. The crash occurred Aug. 19 after Russia's space agency Roscosmos reported it had lost contact with the robot lander and it spun into an uncontrolled orbit.

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon," read a statement from the agency.

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Imaging shows appearance of new crater

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission operations team sent a signal directing the spacecraft on Aug. 22 to capture images of the site, which it did two days later on Aug. 24.

Imagery that NASA released on Thursday appears to show the appearance of a crater about 10 meters in diameter, which was not there in June 2022 during the previous imaging of the area.

"Since this new crater is close to the Luna-25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor," NASA said.

A race to the moon

Russia, the United States and other countries have been locked in a renewed heated space race decades after the first lunar missions first captivated the world.

Before its demise, the moon mission Russia launched this month was the nation's first since 1976, when it was still part of the Soviet Union.

The spacecraft was scheduled to land on the moon's south pole, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft. Instead, India's space program made history last week when its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed in the moon’s mysterious south polar region.

The landing marked the first time any nation has landed near the south pole and the first lunar touchdown for India. India is now the fourth nation to land on the moon, following the U.S., Russia/Soviet Union, and China.

The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain water. The frozen water in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel.

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Meanwhile, the United States is preparing to send its first astronauts to the moon in a half-century as part of its Artemis missions. Three Americans and one Canadian are expected next year to board a capsule that will take them on a 10-day journey around the moon.

Then, in 2025 NASA hopes to put the first two American astronauts on the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Ultimately, NASA aims to establish a permanent human presence on and around the moon as it prepares for future missions to Mars.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia's Luna-25 crash site evidence found in NASA moon scan: Watch