In what appears to be a setback to Russia's moon mission, the Luna-25 spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit on Saturday. A picture taken from the camera of the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 shows the Zeeman crater located on the far side of the moon. (via Reuters)Launched on August 10, almost a month after the Chandrayaan-3 lift-off, the Luna-25 spacecraft was racing to land on the moon’s south pole ahead of the Indian spacecraft on August 21. Russia, however, reported an “abnormal situation” on its moon-bound spacecraft while trying to enter its scheduled pre-landing lunar orbit. Russia's first moon mission in post-Soviet eraOnly three countries have managed successful moon landings: the erstwhile Soviet Union, the United States and China.

Source: Hindustan Times August 20, 2023 08:32 UTC