The Luna 25 spacecraft reported an “emergency situation on board,” Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said on Saturday.
An incident occurred as the spacecraft was trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, according to Roscosmos.
“During the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos said in a Telegram post.
This was entirely shocking and unforeseen seeing how well all of Russia’s recent space tech has performed
Is it manned? I hope the cosmonauts get home safe regardless of nationality
And that’s a US mission for clarity of those who don’t follow this topic closely. China also has planned a manned mission to the moon by the end of the decade and all of these countries (India, Russia, US and China) are all targeting the Moon’s south pole which is much more treacherous in terms of geographic features than previous Moon missions. The south pole has frozen water deposits and the eventual goal is to use this area as a refueling station for exploration further out into the solar system. Pretty exciting times!
Wow only 2 years away? Is this really happening? I’ve heard nothing about it.
Edit: looks like the answer is maybe… https://spacenews.com/nasa-weighs-changes-to-artemis-3-if-key-elements-are-delayed/
I know you found your answer already, but for anyone else who doesn’t feel like reading a long article:
Yes this is really happening, but no it’s very unlikely it will be in 2025. Maybe 2026. Artemis 1 had a relatively minor heat shield issue that could but likely won’t delay the Nov 2024 launch of Artemis 2(crewed orbit around moon, no landing), which could in turn delay Artemis 3. The bigger problem though for Artemis 3’s timeline is the lunar lander, which is supposed to be a modified version of SpaceX’s Starship. Given the issues the normal version of Starship has had, confidence has dropped they’ll be able to deliver the lander in time for the mission.
This next bit is pure speculation on my part but I’m personally of the opinion that Artemis 3 will end up merely a crewed orbit of the moon like Artemis 2. With 2 other crewed landings planned for this decade, I feel they’ll sacrifice the main goal of the mission before they sacrifice the timeline too much. Artemis 4 is likely also going to swap spots with Artemis 5, as the main goal of Artemis 4(Lunar space station) is at best described as in “development hell”, while Artemis 5 is basically Artemis 3 but with a different non-SpaceX lander.
that government can’t get anything to work. they should invest some research points on meritocracy if they want to advance before Ghandi nukes them.
The Russian Lander approches the lunar surface. Pieces of it are rattling and shaking as it makes it way in. Huge chunks of paint have fallen off, revealing the skin of a Lebedenko Tank underneath and a Jerry-rigged Ukrainian toilet
Russian Government: " We have lost contact with the greatest lander ever made. This is obviously the handmarks of Westren jealousy."
The onboard computer just had a little smoking accident, nothing to worry about.
