TALLINN, Estonia (AP) \u2014 Russia reported an \u201cabnormal situation\u201d Saturday on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft, which\u00a0launched\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country\u2019s space agency, Roscosmos, said the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, and that its specialists were analyzing the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,\u201d Roscosmos said in a Telegram post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roscosmos did not specify whether the incident will prevent Luna-25 from making a landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, racing to land on Earth\u2019s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft. The\u00a0lunar south pole\u00a0is 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also on Saturday, the Russian spacecraft produced its first results. Though Roscosmos said the information was undergoing analysis, the agency reported that the preliminary data obtained contained information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil and that its equipment had registered a \u201cmicrometeorite impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roscosmos posted images of the Zeeman crater \u2013 the third largest in the moon\u2019s southern hemisphere \u2013 taken from the spacecraft. The crater has a diameter of 190 kilometers (118 miles) and is eight kilometers (five miles) deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The launch from Russia\u2019s Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of the Luna-25 craft on Aug. 10 was Russia\u2019s first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian lunar lander was expected to reach the moon between Aug. 21 – 23, around the same time as an Indian craft which was\u00a0launched on July 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only three governments have managed successful moon landings: the Soviet Union, the United States and China. India and Russia are aiming to be the first to land at the moon\u2019s south pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roscosmos said it wants to show Russia \u201cis a state capable of delivering a payload to the moon,\u201d and \u201censure Russia\u2019s guaranteed access to the moon\u2019s surface.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine make it harder for the country to access Western technology, impacting its space program. The Luna-25 was initially meant to carry a small moon rover but that idea was abandoned to reduce the weight of the craft for improved reliability, analysts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cForeign electronics are lighter, domestic electronics are heavier,\u201d Egorov said. \u201cWhile scientists might have the task of studying lunar water, for Roscosmos the main task is simply to land on the moon \u2014 to recover lost Soviet expertise and learn how to perform this task in a new era.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spaceport is a\u00a0pet project\u00a0of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is key to his efforts to make Russia a space superpower and move Russian launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A previous\u00a0Indian attempt to land\u00a0at the moon\u2019s south pole in 2019 ended when the lander crashed into the moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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