Russia has lost contact with noble and superior Russian science lunar lander.

[kpete]

The 1.2-ton lunar lander entered orbit around the Moon three days ago, and since that time Russian engineers have been sending commands for small engine burns to correct the spacecraft's orbit. Roscosmos sent another of these commands on Saturday to put Luna 25 into a "pre-landing orbit," ahead of a landing that had been due to occur as soon as Monday.

However, during the maneuver at 14:10 Moscow time (11:10 UTC) on Saturday a problem occurred, which did not allow the operation to be carried out successfully. "The management team is currently analyzing the situation," concluded the short statement from Roscosmos.

Since that time rumors have been running rampant on Russian social media channels, with the presumption that the spacecraft has probably been lost. Russian space reporter Anatoly Zak said it seems possible that Roscosmos has lost communication with Luna 25, but will continue its efforts to try to contact the spacecraft.

Russia's efforts to reestablish communication with Luna 25 will be complicated by the country's lack of a deep space communications network. Satellite tracker Scott Tilley noted that the country's ability to communicate with Luna 25 will be limited to when the Moon is visible over Russia. There are relatively few of these opportunities in the days ahead.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/russia-seems-to-have-lost-contact-with-its-first-lunar-probe-in-half-a-century/

[Lovie777]

1. Any people on board?...............

[Wonder Why]

10. Yevgeny Prigozhin

[UTUSN]

14. Hah!

[Duppers]

13. No.

Luna-25 is an unmanned robot lander - Russia's first mission to the lunar surface in almost 50 yrs.

Another embarrassing failure for Putin.

[royable]

2. A bizarre statement

“ Satellite tracker Scott Tilley noted that the country's ability to communicate with Luna 25 will be limited to when the Moon is visible over Russia. There are relatively few of these opportunities in the days ahead. ”

The moon would be over Russia every single day for approximately half the day.

Hopefully someone can figure out its location and orbit so that, if nothing else, it doesn’t collide with some other lunar-orbiting craft. Unexpectedly-like.

[JI7]

4. He said visible so maybe he means when is clear

[royable]

5. Perhaps. Most deep space communication uses S-band radio

which isn’t affected by clouds. But there are other radio bands used for such communications and I don’t know what the soviets would be using. It would be strange, though, to be unable to communicate with your lunar mission if it were cloudy

[moonshinegnomie]

6. my guess is it crashed

they were doing some orbital corrections. my guess the engine didnt cut off and teh ship crashed into the moon

[mike_c]

12. their "lack of a deep space comms network" includes...

...not having receivers around the globe. It's the blind half day that's the problem. I'm surprised they can't monitor from international waters though. Do they need radio telescopes to amplify the signal? I guess they can't rent time on short notice, maybe?

[Zorro]

3. Space stuff is hard

[Gruenemann]

7. For sure!

It's like...rocket science!

[Brainfodder]

8. I don't care, do you?

Thank Melania, bestest thing you ever said on a jacket!

[Red Mountain]

9. I highly appreciate any space exploration efforts.....

but have a hard time caring about this one.

I think the Russians are cursed. They may not realize it, yet.....but nothing for them will go well until they get out of Ukraine and dump Putin and his henchmen.

Hear that Russians?

CURSED!

[Wonder Why]

11. "Comrade Putin, please don't allow me to commit suicide by jumping from the window."

"It wasn't me that chose to use vacuum tubes because all the Chinese and Iranian digital circuits are in drones headed for Ukrainian civilians."

[roamer65]

15. It probably smacked into the surface of the moon.

Splat-ovich.