NASA discovered a new crater in the moon. The US space agency says the crater was likely caused by a Russian lander colliding with the moon.
The Russian lunar module Luna-25 crashed into the lunar surface on August 19. NASA captured satellite images of the same moon on Aug. 24 via the LRO spacecraft. Compared to previous images taken in June last year, NASA discovered a new small crater.
After investigation, the LRO team concluded that the crater was most likely caused by the crash of the Russian Luna-25. A natural cause seems unlikely.
The diameter of the hole is 10 meters. The NASA investigation shows that the crater is about 400 kilometers from where the Russian lunar lander should land.
Luna-25 engines burned for 43 seconds, a very long time
The Luna-25 crashed due to engine failure. They would have to burn for exactly 84 seconds for the craft to orbit the moon. Instead, the engines burned for 127 seconds. For example, the Luna-25 entered a very low lunar orbit and crashed unplanned on the lunar surface.
The last time Russia managed to land on the moon was in 1976 with the Luna 24 mission, which at that time belonged to the Soviet Union. Even the team behind the moon landings came largely from Ukraine.
Aside from the Soviet Union, only the United States, China and India managed to reach the lunar surface in a careful and disciplined manner.
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