Luna-25, a Russian spacecraft, is lost on the moon.

Luna-25, a Russian spacecraft, is lost on the moon.

According to the Russian space agency, the moon lander “has ceased to exist following a collision with the moon’s surface.”

The Russian space agency has reported that the Luna-25 probe, which was on Russia’s first moon mission in nearly 50 years, fell on the moon as a result of an accident during pre-landing maneuvers.

Roscosmos reported that communication with Luna-25 was lost at 2:57 p.m. (11:57 GMT) on Saturday.

Roscosmos reported on Sunday that initial assessments indicated that the lander “has ceased to exist following a collision with the moon’s surface.”

“Attempts to locate and contact the craft on August 19 and 20 were unsuccessful.”

The space agency announced that an investigation into the crash’s reasons will begin, although it made no mention of any potential technical issues.

In an effort to continue the heritage of the Luna program from the Soviet era and signal a return to independent lunar exploration in the face of deepening isolation from the West, Moscow had hoped that Luna-25 would do just that.

On Monday, the 800kg Luna-25 probe was supposed to perform the first-ever soft landing on the lunar south pole.

A race between superpowers to study a region of the moon where scientists believe there may be frozen water and rich materials involved the Russian spacecraft.

It was designed to last a year at the south pole, where NASA and other space agencies have recently found evidence of frozen water in the craters. It was roughly the size of a small vehicle.

Major space powers should consider the effects of the presence of water since it may permit longer human stays on the moon and lunar resource exploitation. Roskosmos had already announced that it had received and was analyzing the initial results from the Luna-25 mission.

The agency also published pictures of the Zeeman crater on the moon that were captured by the spacecraft. With a diameter of 190 kilometers (118 miles) and a depth of 8 kilometers (5 miles), the crater is the third-deepest in the southern hemisphere of the moon.

In addition to facilitating the operation of instruments designed to examine the lunar near-surface, Roskosmos claimed that data it has so far received has revealed information about the chemical components of the lunar soil.

“The event of a micrometeorite impact” was recorded by its apparatus.