Current:Home > FinanceRussia moon probe crash likely left 33-foot-wide crater on the lunar surface, NASA images show-InfoLens
Russia moon probe crash likely left 33-foot-wide crater on the lunar surface, NASA images show
View Date:2024-12-23 12:19:01
Russia's Luna-25 probe likely left a 33-foot-wide crater on the surface of the moon last month when it lost control and crashed down, NASA said Thursday, revealing images that show the suspected impact site.
Russia's first moon mission in 47 years ended in failure on August 19 when the Luna-25 probe smashed into the moon after a thruster firing went awry, cutting off communications and putting the spacecraft on the wrong orbital path, according to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft captured images last week of what the U.S. space agency described as a "new crater" after Roscosmos published an estimate of where the probe had struck.
"Since this new crater is close to the Luna-25 estimated impact point," NASA wrote in a statement, "the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor."
Moscow has set up a commission to investigate exactly why Luna-25 crashed.
The failure was a major disappointment for the Russian space program, which was attempting to up its game amid renewed interest in the moon's southern polar region, where ice deposits may exist in permanently shadowed craters. Ice could offer future space missions a way to produce breathable air, water and even hydrogen rocket fuel.
The Russians have had little success with independent space exploration since the Luna-24 robot landed on the moon in 1976. It scooped up about six ounces of lunar soil and returned it to Earth in Russia's third successful robotic lunar sample return mission.
Twelve NASA astronauts walked on the moon a half century ago in the agency's Apollo program, but no Russian cosmonauts ever made the trip. Russia's only previous post-Soviet deep space robotic missions, both targeting Mars, ended in failure.
Luna-25 was an attempt to pick up the torch and put Russia back into a new space race of sorts, as the U.S., China, India, Japan and the private sector all plan multiple moon missions that could lay the foundations for lunar bases and eventual flights to Mars.
India's Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lunar lander made a historic touch-down near the moon's south pole just several days after the Russian probe crashed. It delivered a lunar rover that has already sent back data from soil samples.
William Harwood contributed to this report.
- In:
- Moon
- Russia
- Space
- NASA
Frank Andrews is a CBS News journalist based in London.
TwitterveryGood! (536)
Related
- 2025 NFL mock draft: QBs Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward crack top five
- Australian court overturns woman’s 2-decade-old convictions in deaths of her 4 children
- Lawsuit alleges ex-Harvard Medical School professor used own sperm to secretly impregnate patient
- Wartime Palestinian poll shows surge in Hamas support, close to 90% want US-backed Abbas to resign
- Biden, Harris participate in Veterans Day ceremony | The Excerpt
- Friends and teammates at every stage, Spanish players support each other again at Cal
- The New York courthouse where Trump is on trial is evacuated briefly as firefighters arrive
- Australian court overturns woman’s 2-decade-old convictions in deaths of her 4 children
- Special counsel Smith asks court to pause appeal seeking to revive Trump’s classified documents case
- Apple releases beta version of Stolen Device Protection feature
Ranking
- ONA Community Introduce
- West Virginia GOP Gov. Justice appoints cabinet secretary to circuit judge position
- Former Denver Post crime reporter Kirk Mitchell dies of prostate cancer at 64
- A game of integrity? Golf has a long tradition of cheating and sandbagging
- Man charged with murder in fatal shooting of 2 workers at Chicago’s Navy Pier
- Cardi B says she is single, confirming breakup with Offset
- Biden to meet in person Wednesday with families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas
- Execution date set for Missouri man who killed his cousin and her husband in 2006
Recommendation
-
Beyoncé's Grammy nominations in country categories aren't the first to blur genre lines
-
Congressional group demands probe into Beijing’s role in violence against protesters on US soil
-
Mysterious shipwreck measuring over 200 feet long found at bottom of Baltic Sea
-
NFL to play first regular-season game in Brazil in 2024 as league expands international slate
-
Ex-Phoenix Suns employee files racial discrimination, retaliation lawsuit against the team
-
Australian court overturns woman’s 2-decade-old convictions in deaths of her 4 children
-
COP28 Does Not Deliver Clear Path to Fossil Fuel Phase Out
-
Giants offered comparable $700M deal to Shohei Ohtani as the Dodgers