Russian spacecraft crashes into the Moon
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Russia's Luna-25 robotic spacecraft crashed into the Moon on Sunday ahead of its planned attempt to land on the lunar surface this week.
Why it matters: This was Russia's first Moon mission in nearly 50 years, and its failure is a major blow to the nation's space ambitions.
Driving the news: Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced on Telegram that after a maneuver, Luna-25 ended up in the wrong orbit and "ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface," according to a Google translation.
- Roscosmos is now forming an "interdepartmental commission" to further understand why the mission failed.
Context: Luna-25 was expected to land in the lunar south pole, a part of the Moon thought to be rich in water ice that could potentially be used to create rocket fuel to power missions to deep space destinations like Mars.
- A mission from India currently orbiting the Moon is expected to make its own landing attempt in the region later this week.
- Future missions from the U.S., China and others are also expected to target the area.
The big picture: While the U.S. and Russia currently collaborate on the International Space Station, the future of the two nations' alliance in space is tenuous.
- The U.S. is aiming for the Moon with NASA's Artemis program, recruiting nations around the world to collaborate.
- Russia has refused to sign on with Artemis and is instead partnering with China to create a lunar research station working with other nations.
Go deeper: The power center in space moves to the Moon
