• Russia’s Luna-25 probe left Earth two weeks ago destined for the southern pole of the Moon.
• Unfortunately at the weekend Russia’s Roscosmos reported that it had lost contact with the probe.
• Ultimately the space agency said that Luna-25 “ceased to exist” after colliding with the lunar surface.

Returning to the Moon after nearly 50 years was an odd move for a country currently embroiled in a war, but on 11th August Luna-25 departed for the Moon from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.

Since then the probe has been travelling to Earth’s closest celestial neighbour. Unfortunately on Saturday that mission reached a premature end.

Roscosmos issued a statement on Saturday morning which said that communication with Luna-25 had been interrupted on 19th August,

“According to the results of a preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the device switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface,” the Russian space agency said in a statement translated from Russian to English.

An investigation will be launched, but this is a blow to the space agency.

The probe was destined to land on the Moon’s southern pole in what would have been a first in history. This area of the Moon is said to have traces of frozen water, but this has yet to confirmed, something we suspect the folks at Roscosmos were hoping to do.

Whether Russia has another probe ready is unclear at this stage.

Last year NASA “returned” to the Moon with its Artemis mission.

NASA’s mission didn’t see the Orion probe landing on the Moon as the point of the mission was to test systems ahead of Artemis II which will take a human crew around the Moon.

There is no word yet on when Artemis II will take place.

The Moon is a rather important for humanity’s hopes of exploring the cosmos. Being able to establish a base on the Moon which ships could use to refuel before longer journeys would be incredible and could help humans reach further into space.

Of course we need to get there, establish that base and keep those working on it alive first.