NASA Probe Discovers Landing Site of Russian Lunar Module "Luna-25"

The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has identified a fresh impact site on the Moon's surface resulting from the collision of the Russian lunar module "Luna-25" with Earth's natural satellite. This revelation was reported by Space magazine.

The newly formed crater is situated within the designated landing zone of "Luna-25," which was intended for a safe touchdown near the Moon's South Pole. The NASA spacecraft embarked on a mission to locate the impact site using an approximate landing point provided by the Russian space agency "Roscosmos."

The LRO team captured images of the landing site using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on August 24. Subsequently, they compared these fresh photographs with images of the same area taken in June 2022. The discovered crater measures approximately 10 meters in diameter and is positioned at a latitude of 58 degrees south.

"Given that this new crater is close to the predicted Luna-25 impact point, the LRO team concludes that it likely originated from this mission rather than a natural impact," NASA officials declared in a statement released today (August 31), announcing the finding.

The new crater, located near the steep inner edge of the Ponteculant G crater on the Moon, has a width of about 10 meters and is situated at approximately 58 degrees south latitude. The impact location is around 400 kilometers from the planned landing site of Luna-25, which is positioned at 69.5 degrees south latitude.

"Luna-25" was launched on August 10, marking Russia's first lunar mission since 1976, when the country was part of the Soviet Union. The name of the new mission was an attempt to evoke memories of those days, as the successful 1976 lunar mission that brought back samples was named "Luna-24."

The "Luna-25" mission aimed to become the first probe to achieve a soft landing near the Moon's South Pole—a region believed to be rich in water ice, potentially supporting human outposts. However, due to the failure of the Russian mission "Chandrayaan-3," the Indian mission that launched on July 14 and successfully landed on August 23, became the first such spacecraft to achieve this feat. "Chandrayaan-3" is still exploring its polar region with a descent module and a small rover designed to operate for one lunar day, roughly equivalent to 14 Earth days. It is anticipated that by the end of this period, the lunar night will render both robots inoperable.