There was a competition between India’s Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s Luna-25 to reach the lunar surface. Luna-25 launched later from Chandrayaan-3, crashed during a soft landing on the lunar surface. Now, America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has claimed to have located where Luna-25 hit.
NASA announced Thursday that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has spotted a crater that may be debris from Russia’s lunar mission Luna-25.
Russian space agency Roscosmos reported the crash of Luna-25 on August 21. LRO teams at NASA sent commands to the spacecraft to photograph the site the next day. They can see a minor new crater by comparing pictures taken before and after the crash. NASA has claimed that this could be the debris of Luna-25.
Has Become A Pit
According to NASA, this crater is located at an altitude of about 360 meters at approximately 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude. This steep crater measures about 10 meters across and is located on the inner edge of the much more giant Pontécoulant G crater. This crater is about 400 kilometres from where Luna-25 was about to land.
How Did Luna-25 Crash?
The exact circumstances of Luna-25’s crash are still not entirely clear. Still, Roscosmos said the spacecraft’s speed and turn during its transition to orbit before landing significantly differed from the scheduled rate. Controlling the speed of projects launched to the Moon is challenging. Learning from Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3 was able to make a soft landing on the lunar surface slowly, like a turtle.
