The Luna 25 probe, Russia's first moon mission in nearly 50 years, crashed Sunday on the moon as a result of an accident during pre-landing preparations, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Roscosmos reported that communication with Luna 25 was lost around 2:57 PM (1157 GMT) on Saturday. The lander "has ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon's surface," according to preliminary assessments.
According to the space agency, a malfunction occurred as the ship was being shifted into pre-landing orbit on Saturday at 11:57 GMT, according to Roskosmos, failing to make a gentle landing as originally planned for Monday.
"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," Roskosmos said in a statement.
Additionally, a special interdepartmental commission has been established and ordered to investigate the circumstances surrounding the loss of the Luna 25 craft, Geo News reported.
The accident brought to light Russia's waning space capabilities since the height of the Cold War competition, when Moscow launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit the Earth, in 1957 and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in 1961.
Due to Western sanctions and the worst land battle in Europe since the Second World War, Russia's $2 trillion economy is also facing its toughest external challenge in decades.
Russia hadn't launched a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, a year during which communist leader Leonid Brezhnev was in command of the Kremlin.
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