The unmanned craft was due to make a soft landing on the Moon's south pole, but failed after encountering issues as it moved into its pre-landing orbit.

It was Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years.

The spacecraft was scheduled to land on Monday to explore a part of the Moon which scientists think could hold frozen water and precious elements.

Roskosmos, Russia's state space corporation, said it lost contact with the Luna-25 shortly after running into difficulties.

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[–] SirMechsALot@lemmy.world 64 points 1 year ago (12 children)

They rushed a project to compete with NASA's VIPER rover and just wanted to be first.

[–] GreatFord@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago

They were also trying to be the Indian team, who are taking a longer time using gravitational whip to send their mission to the Moon’s pole.

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