As the race for landing on the moon's surface heats up, Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft faced a technical glitch on Saturday while performing its pre-landing manoeuvre, space agency Roscosmos said. The Luna-25 had aimed to land on August 21, two days before India's Chandrayaan-3 lands near the south pole.
"During the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the carrying out of the manoeuvre within the specified conditions," Roscosmos said, according to a report by AFP.
Meanwhile, announcing that the health of Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module is normal, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday said that the module has successfully undergone a deboosting (slowing down) operation taking it closer to the Moon. The soft landing of the Lander on the Lunar south pole is scheduled on August 23.
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Russia's Luna 25 Mission
Russia launched its Luna 25 on August 11 but due to the mission's lightweight design and efficient fuel storage, it will take a shorter route to make a touchdown on the moon's south pole, which has not been explored by any space agency. Russia's Luna 25 is the country's first moon mission in 47 years.
The spacecraft sent back its first images of the moon from lunar orbit on August 17. The images feature the south polar crater Zeeman, located on the far side of the moon. The spacecraft entered the moon's orbit on Wednesday and will circle the moon for around two more days and then change course for a soft landing on the lunar south pole planned for August 21.
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On August 18, Roskosmos confirmed that the 40-second orbit correction maneuver had been performed.
"Today at 09:20 Moscow time (11:50 am IST), the propulsion system of the automatic station performed an orbit correction lasting 40 seconds. Its goal is to provide the best conditions for the subsequent construction of a pre-landing orbit," Roscosmos said in a statement.
The space agency had earlier said the Luna-25 mission would spend 5-7 days in lunar orbit before descending to one of three possible landing sites near the pole, according to a report by Reuters.
Where is Chandrayaan 3?
ISRO's Vikram Lander is only 113 kilometers away from the moon as of Saturday. The Lander Module comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan), will undergo its second deboosting operation on August 20. This will lower the module to an orbit that takes it much closer to the Moon's surface.
The Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 had successfully separated from the Propulsion Module on Thursday, 35 days after the satellite was launched on July 14.
