Yuri Borisov, head of Roskosmos, met with the developers of the Luna-25 automatic station at the NPO on August 25. SA Lavochkin.
“The head of Roscosmos discussed with the staff of the enterprise and Russian scientists the possible causes of the incomplete Luna-25 mission and the future prospects of the Russian lunar program.”
– the press service of the state agency reported the results of the visit Telegram.
Borisov stressed that the failure of “Luna-25” did not “stop” the development of the Earth satellite and called for continued work. “There is no need to make a tragedy out of this,” he said, adding that Russian designers and scientists “burn with the idea of continuing the lunar project.”
A new landing mission to the Moon’s South Pole could be undertaken as early as 2025-2026.
Speaking to reporters later, the head of Roscosmos emphasized once again that the tasks of the Luna-25 should be applied in other missions.
“In case of abnormal completion of the first mission [произошло]The entire program now needs to be corrected, so that the missing functionality in this task is implemented in the process of the planned entire lunar program, “Borisov said on the broadcast of the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
Launch support
The launch of the Luna-26 was scheduled for 2027, but Borisov said a few days ago that work on the mission could be accelerated. I believe that by accelerating the Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions, we will definitely get the lost results that we unfortunately did not get during the implementation of the Luna-25 mission due to the accident,” he said.
According to the general manager of the state company, it would be “the most wrong decision” to interrupt the lunar program now.
“The negative experience of the interruption of the lunar program for almost 50 years is the main cause of failures. In fact, we need to master all technologies in a new way, ”said Borisov.
“Luna-25” crash
Luna-25 was the first lunar mission in Russia’s modern history. Its predecessor, the Luna 24, was launched by the USSR in 1976. The device went to the Moon from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur Region on August 11 and was expected to make a soft landing on August 21. However, on August 19, communication with the device was lost.
Roskosmos found that the engine did not shut down normally during the final maneuver and ran for 127 seconds instead of the predicted 84 seconds. As a result, the ship deviated from the calculated trajectory and crashed on the moon.
However, Borisov said that even if the main task of the device is not fulfilled (soft landing on the south pole of the moon, taking the lunar soil and analyzing it for the presence of water), Russia has gained experience in flying to the Earth’s natural satellite. and placing the station in a circular lunar orbit.