NEARLY two weeks after Russia’s Luna-25 lunar probe crashed on the Moon, NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) may have found the exact spot.
NASA’s LRO used data from Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, to pinpoint the crash site.
NASA’s LRO, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has been exploring and mapping the moon since its 2009 launch.
On August 24, LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) captured an image of a new crater on the Moon’s surface, close to the Luna-25’s estimated impact location. Comparing this image with one from June 2022 revealed a fresh 10-meter-wide crater at coordinates 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude, at an elevation of about minus 360 meters.
Luna-25, Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly half a century, tragically crashed after an uncontrolled spin.
Roscosmos reported an “emergency” onboard the probe the day before the crash, preventing a planned maneuver.
The mission aimed to spend a year on the moon, conducting scientific tasks such as collecting samples and analyzing lunar soil. Luna-25 launched on August 10, 2023, and was supposed to land near the lunar south pole on August 20.
