Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure

[Mr._Clark]

Mmmm, schadenfreude.

>>>MOSCOW, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme. . . . The failure underscored the decline of Russia's space power since the glory days of Cold War competition when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth - Sputnik 1, in 1957 - and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.<<<

Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure

Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit.

www.reuters.com

 

[lovinthehd]

At least it wasn't manned....

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

So.. You're saying that the mission was a big smash? [I'll see myself out]
Somebody soon to undergo an involuntary flight attempt out of high rise building

 

[cpp]

And later today we will see if India's Chandrayaan-3 makes its landing.

 

[Dude#1279435]

Pretty good metaphor IMO.

 

[Mr._Clark]

This AP article links the failure to "endemic problems" in Russia.

>>>The destruction of the robotic Luna-25 probe, which crashed onto the surface of the moon over the weekend, reflects the endemic problems that have dogged the Russian space industry since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Those include the loss of key technologies in the post-Soviet industrial meltdown, the bruising impact of recent Western sanctions, a huge brain drain and widespread corruption.<<<

https://apnews.com/article/russia-moon-luna25-spacecraft-mission-33c9884c907998f06bf9562be6d47445

There is undoubtedly some truth in the AP statement that there are "endemic problems" in Russia, but there have been many failures of space missions by many countries over the years. For example, wiki has a list of missions to the moon. There were many failures, especially during the early days of the space race.

List of missions to the Moon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Wiki also has a list of mars missions and the outcomes of each.

List of missions to Mars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

With regards to mars missions, the Soviet Union and Russia have had numerous failures, but NASA's track record is far from perfect.

 

[ben_]

"Space is hard"

 

[lovinthehd]

....and India made their landing https://www.cbsnews.com/news/india-moon-landing-mission-chandrayaan-3-success/

 

[Mr._Clark]

"Space is hard"

Or, as JFK famously said: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Given that there are probably an infinite number things that are hard, I always thought this begged the question why we should choose to do this particular hard thing. I'll concede this is nit-picky and it leaves out the rest of the speech.

It sounded good when he said it (it's at 9:00 in the video at link below).

Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort

When John F. Kennedy became president in January 1961, Americans had the perception that the United States was losing the "space race" with the Soviets. President Kennedy understood the need and had the vision of not only matching the Soviets, but surpassing them. On May 25, 1961, he stood...

www.jfklibrary.org

 

[mtrycrafts]

"Space is hard"

Space is relatively empty.
That is why it is hard to manage.

 

[isolar8001]

I hope that Lander didn't set down too close to the nuclear waste dumps...

 

[Mikado463]

At least it wasn't manned....

Damn, I was hoping 'Put-nuts' was on board .......