An ambitious but failed attempt by Russia to return to the moon after nearly half a century has exposed the enormous challenges facing Moscow’s once-proud space program.
The destruction of the robotic Luna-25 probe that crashed onto the lunar surface over the weekend reflects the endemic problems that have plagued Russia’s space industry since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These include the loss of key technologies in the post-Soviet industrial crisis, the devastating effects of recent Western sanctions, a huge brain drain and widespread corruption.
Yuri Borisov, head of the state-controlled space company Roskosmos, attributed the failure to a lack of expertise due to the long hiatus in lunar exploration after the last Soviet lunar mission in 1976.
“The invaluable experience gained by our predecessors in the 1960s and 1970s was practically lost,” Borisov said. “The link between the generations has been severed.”
While the USSR was losing the race to land humans on the moon against the United States, the Soviet lunar program saw more than a dozen successful pioneering robotic missions, some using lunar rovers and returning soil samples to Earth. The proud Soviet space history includes the launch of the first satellite into space in 1957 and the first man in space in 1961.
Mikhail Marov, a 90-year-old scientist who played a prominent role in planning previous lunar missions and worked on the Luna 25 project, was hospitalized after its failure.
“It was very hard. It’s the work of my whole life,” Marov said in a statement to Russian media. “It was my last chance to see the revival of our lunar program.”
Borisov said the spacecraft’s engine fired for 127 seconds instead of the planned 84 seconds, leading to the crash, and a government commission will investigate the error.
Natan Eismont, a senior researcher at the Moscow-based Institute for Space Research, told state agency RIA Novosti that signs of equipment problems had already emerged before the crash, but space officials continued to authorize the landing.
Vitaly Egorov, a popular Russian space blogger, noted that Roscosmos may have ignored warnings to be the first to land on the lunar south pole, ahead of an Indian spacecraft orbiting the moon ahead of a scheduled landing.
“It looks like things didn’t go according to plan, but they decided not to change the schedule to prevent the Indians from coming first,” he said.
The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain frozen water in the rocks that future explorers could convert into air and rocket fuel.
A major factor exacerbating Russia’s space woes, and possibly playing a role in Luna-25’s failure, was Western sanctions against Moscow over its war in Ukraine. These penalties have blocked imports of microchips and other vital western components and restricted scientific exchanges.
While working on the Luna 25 project, Roscosmos worked with the European Space Agency to provide a camera to facilitate the landing. ESA ended the partnership shortly after the February 2022 invasion, requesting Roscosmos to remove its camera from the spacecraft.
Years earlier, Russia had hoped to buy the main navigation device for the lunar mission from Airbus, but was unable to do so due to restrictions blocking technology transfer. Custom equipment ended up being developed, delaying the project and weighing twice as much, reducing the spacecraft’s scientific payload, which weighed 1,750 kilograms (over 3,800 pounds).
Many industry experts note that even before the most recent Western sanctions, the use of inferior components led to the failure of an ambitious mission to send a probe to the Martian moon Phobos in 2011. The spacecraft’s engines could not send them on their way to Mars. and it burned in Earth’s atmosphere — a problem researchers attributed to the use of cheap commercial microchips unsuited to the harsh conditions in space.
Some observers speculated that the use of the cheap components could be due to a scheme to embezzle government funds, rather than importing the specialized equipment for the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft designed by NPO Lavochkin, the same company that also developed Luna- 25 developed.
NPO Lavochkin designed battle plans during World War II and was the main developer of Soviet robotic missions to the Moon, Venus and Mars. Several senior Lavochkin executives have been arrested for abuse of office in recent years.
After the failure of Phobos, space officials talked about a thorough overhaul of the lunar spacecraft’s design to avoid using similarly inferior components. It is unclear whether such work ever took place.
Russian state television had hailed Luna-25 as the country’s triumphant entry into a new moon race, but since the crash, broadcasters have tried to downplay the spacecraft’s loss. Some argued the mission was not a complete failure, as it returned images of the lunar surface from orbit and other data.
Trying to remain optimistic, Borisov argued that some important results had been achieved.
He emphasized that participation in lunar exploration “means not only prestige or the achievement of geopolitical goals, but is also necessary to ensure defense capability and technological sovereignty.”
“I hope that the next missions… will be successful,” Borisov said, adding that Roscosmos will intensify work on future lunar missions, with the next one planned for 2027.
“Under no circumstances should we interrupt our lunar program. “That would be a completely wrong decision,” he said.
Amid the finger-pointing, some argued that failure could cost Borisov his job. Others predicted he would likely avoid the firing, citing President Vladimir Putin’s track record of avoiding hasty firings of officers in response to incidents.
Borisov, previously deputy prime minister in charge of defense industry, became Roscosmos chief a year ago, succeeding Dmitry Rogozin, who has been widely blamed for some previous space mishaps. Rogozin, who volunteered to join the fighting in Ukraine, did not comment on the failed Luna 25 mission.
Under Rogozin, Roskosmos suffered a series of failed satellite launches. These failures, combined with the growing role of private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, have cost Russia its once-great niche in the lucrative global space rocket market.
Rogozin has been widely criticized for failing to root out endemic corruption, including funds embezzled from the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East, which was used to launch the latest lunar mission.
Some commentators said the Luna-25 crash had damaged Russia’s image and raised new doubts about its technological prowess in the wake of military failures in Ukraine.
“The consequences of the Luna 25 disaster are enormous,” said pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergey Markov.
“It raises doubts about Russia’s claim to great power status in the eyes of the world community. Many would decide that Russia cannot achieve its ambitions either in Ukraine or on the moon because it does not live on its modest current capabilities, but on fantasies about its great past,” he said. “People and countries want to side with the strong who win, not the weak who keep making excuses for their defeats.”
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