Director of Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, Yuri Borisov has announced that Luna 25, a lunar lander spacecraft, crashed on 20 August because its engine failed to turn off in time ahead of reaching the landing orbit, RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.
“It stayed on for 127 seconds instead of 84, which caused the accident. <…> The main reason is a correction engine malfunction. We will get to the bottom of what caused it,” Borisov said.
The official assured reporters that a crash commission had already been convened. Its findings will be used when planning future missions.
The Roscosmos director stressed that the lunar programme cannot be abandoned “in any case”: “the negative experience of halting the lunar mission by almost 50 years is the key reason behind our failure”. “We essentially have to get reacquainted with all the technologies,” Borisov said.