In the wake of the crash of the Luna-25, Russia’s first attempt to land on the Moon in 47 years, Western media have unleashed a flood of derisive articles, with very few noting the effect of sanctions and the withdrawal of cooperation with Russia by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The reportage ranges from the Daily Beast: “If [Luna-25] had landed, it would have been the country’s first return to the Moon since 1976, when it was known as the Soviet Union. Instead, it ended up being another black eye for a beleaguered space program.… The issues that have plagued Russia’s space program, he said, mirror the very issues that have mired the country for decades including a downright Kafkaesque bureaucracy and financial malfeasance.”
To PBS: “An ambitious but failed attempt by Russia to return to the Moon after nearly half a century has exposed the massive challenges faced by Moscow’s once-proud space program. The destruction of the robotic Luna-25 probe, which crashed onto the surface of the Moon over the weekend, reflects the endemic problems that have dogged the Russian space industry since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Those include the loss of key technologies in the post-Soviet industrial meltdown, the bruising impact of recent Western sanctions, a huge brain drain and widespread corruption.”
RT reported on Aug. 21, Roscosmos director Yury Borisov revealed the main cause behind the failure of the Luna-25 Moon landing. The probe experienced a failure in the engine shutdown procedure, and veered off its intended orbit. A special commission had already been established to investigate the incident.
Like many failures, valuable insights will be learned from the experience and the crash, and Borisov expressed optimism for the future: “The team will, of course, take into account all the mistakes that were made during this mission, and I hope that the future missions of Luna-26, 27, and 28 will be successful.”
