Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into moon--Roscosmos

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft smashes into the moon

MOSCOW, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Luna-25 module has crashed into the moon after it went into an unplanned orbit, Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos said Sunday.

"At around 14:57 Moscow time (1157 GMT), the connection with the automatic lunar probe was lost," Roscosmos said in a statement.

"Preliminary analysis results show that a deviation between the actual and calculated parameters of the propulsion maneuver led the Luna-25 spacecraft to enter an undesignated orbit and it ceased to exist following a collision with the surface of the Moon," it said.

According to Roscosmos, a specially formed interdepartmental commission will investigate the cause of the crash.

The Luna-25 mission, the first Russian spacecraft in more than four decades, headed to the moon on Friday at 02:11 Moscow time (2311 GMT Thursday) on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport located in the Amur Oblast in Russia's Far East. ■