00:00 Russia reported an abnormal situation on Saturday on its moon-bound Luna 25 spacecraft, which
00:09 launched earlier this month.
00:11 The country's space agency, Roscosmos, said that the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble
00:17 while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit and that its specialists were analyzing the
00:22 situation.
00:23 During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which
00:29 did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters, Roscosmos said
00:34 in a Telegram post.
00:36 Roscosmos, however, did not specify whether the incident will prevent Luna 25 from making
00:41 a landing.
00:42 Earlier, Roscosmos stated it had received the first results from the Luna 25 mission
00:48 and that they were being analyzed.
00:50 The Russian spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, part
00:55 of a big power race to explore a part of the moon that scientists think may hold frozen
01:00 water and precious element.
01:02 The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently
01:07 shadowed polar craters may contain water.
01:09 The frozen water in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel.
01:15 Though Roscosmos said that the information received from Luna 25 was undergoing analysis,
01:20 the agency reported that the preliminary data collected contained information about the
01:24 chemical element of the lunar soil and that its equipment had registered a micrometeoroid
01:29 impact.
01:30 Roscosmos posted images of the Zeman crater, the third-largest in the moon's southern
01:35 hemisphere, taken from the spacecraft.
01:38 The crater has a diameter of 190 km and is 8 km deep.
01:43 The launch from Russia's Vostochny spaceport of the Luna 25 craft on 10 August was Russia's
01:49 first since 1976, when it was a part of the Soviet Union.
01:54 The Russian lunar lander was expected to reach the moon over 21-23 August, about the same
01:59 time as an Indian craft Chandrayaan-3 that was launched on 14 July.
02:04 Only three governments have managed successful moon landings - the Soviet Union, the US and
02:09 China.
02:10 India and Russia are aiming to be the first to land at the moon's south pole.
02:14 Roscosmos said it wants to show Russia is a state capable of delivering a payload to
02:19 the moon and ensure Russia's guaranteed access to the moon's surface.
02:23 Sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine made it harder for the country to
02:28 access Western technology, impacting its space programme.
02:32 The Luna 25 was initially meant to carry a small moon rover, but the idea was abandoned
02:36 to reduce the weight of the craft for improved reliability, analysts said.
02:41 The spaceport is a pet project of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is key to his
02:45 efforts to make Russia a space superpower and move Russian launches from the Baikonur
02:50 Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
02:52 A previous Indian attempt to land at the moon's south pole in 2019 ended when the lander crashed
02:57 into the moon's surface.
02:59 -END-
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