Luna 25

The previous lunar lander in the series was a Soviet craft, Luna 24, launched in 1976. Nascent plans for what became Luna 25 began in the late 1990s, with the evaluation of two spacecraft designs having taken place by 1998. Attempts to revive and complete the project continued throughout the 2000s and were punctuated by an aborted attempt at international cooperation via a merger with JAXA's now-cancelled Lunar-A orbiter, and pressure from another attempted cooperative lunar mission with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) (which continued without Russia's involvement). Initial mission plans called for a lander and orbiter, with the latter also deploying impact penetrators. In its final form, Luna 25 was a lander only, with a primary mission of testing the landing technology. The mission carried of scientific instruments, including a robotic arm for soil samples and possible drilling hardware. Delays in the 2010s came first from the significant rework and delay brought on by the failure of Phobos-Grunt in 2011. At this point the modern Luna 25 design was developed. Later work on the lander was slowed by resource pressures being placed upon spacecraft developer NPO Lavochkin, such as the weather satellite Elektro-L No.2 and the Spektr-RG observatory, as well the landing platform Russia was contributing to ExoMars 2020. By 2017, the propulsion system for the spacecraft was in assembly. The intended landing site was located at (north of the crater Boguslawsky), with two backup locations at (southwest of the Manzini crater) and (south of Pentland A crater). The planned mission duration of the lander on the surface of the Moon was to be at least one Earth year. == Science payload ==

The lander featured a payload comprising eight Russian science instruments: • ADRON-LR, active neutron and gamma-ray analysis of regolith • ARIES-L, measurement of plasma in the exosphere • LASMA-LR, laser mass-spectrometer • LIS-TV-RPM, infrared spectrometry of minerals and imaging • PmL, measurement of dust and micro-meteorites • THERMO-L, measurement of the thermal properties of regolith • STS-L, panoramic and local imaging • Laser retroreflector, Moon libration and ranging experiments LINA-XSAN, a Swedish payload, was originally to fly with Luna 25, but delays to the launch date caused Sweden to cancel this plan. Instead, LINA-XSAN flew on Chang'e 4 in 2019. ESA's PILOT-D navigation demonstration camera was planned to be flown on this mission, but flew instead with a commercial service provider, due to continued international collaboration having been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia. The demonstration instrument was supposed to collect data for the landing of other missions and was therefore not part of the lander's operating system. == Flight ==

The launch took place on 10 August 2023 from Vostochny Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2 rocket with a Fregat upper stage. On 16 August, the lander entered lunar orbit, with a scheduled landing date of 21 August. Crash 's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on 26 August 2023. The field of view is 1,100 meters wide, with lunar north at the top. On 19 August, Roscosmos declared an "abnormal situation" after commanding the lander to move into a pre-landing orbit. According to Director General of Roscosmos Yuri Borisov, a maneuvering engine could not be shut down, and ran for 127 seconds instead of 84. The lander crashed on the lunar surface following the failed maneuver, Roscosmos said that it had lost contact with the spacecraft 47 minutes after the start of the engine firing. Attempts on 19 and 20 August to locate and re-establish contact with the spacecraft were unsuccessful, and a commission was formed to investigate the crash. == See also ==