Russian moon mission fails, giving India chance to make history

Russia’s space agency Roskosmos said it lost contact with its Luna-25 spacecraft over the weekend, about a week after launching. A soft landing had been planned for Monday, but the craft “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement. It was the first attempt by Russia to land a vehicle on the moon since it left the Soviet Union. Roskosmos is investigating what caused the crash.

Why is this important? India and Russia were racing to be the next country to successfully land on the moon. Both missions were expected to land around the end of August in roughly the same area—near the moon’s South Pole. With Russia out of the running, India may become the fourth country to successfully land on the moon—after the United States, the Soviet Union, and China.

Dig deeper: Read the report in WORLD Magazine about the death of Apollo 11 crewmember Michael Collins.