Russia's Luna-25 crashes on Moon's surface. India's Chandrayaan-3 is the only mission left in the race

Russia's Luna-25 lunar mission was supposed to make history by soft landing on the south pole of the Moon on Monday (August 21). It was in a race with India's Chandrayaan-3 mission. But on Saturday, August 19, Russia's space agency Roskosmos announced that there was an "abnormal situation" with the spacecraft. It later crashed into the Moon.

Russia is setting up a special committee to investigate what went wrong with the lunar mission which resulted in the loss of Luna-25. 

What it means

• Luna-25 was Russia's first Moon mission in 47 years. The Soviet Union last successfully launched Luna-24, which returned with samples from the Moon in 1976.
• Luna-25 had blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome on August 11.
• It entered the Moon's orbit on August 16. 
• The mission was supposed to show Russia's space prowess amid the expenses of the Ukraine war and the Western sanctions cutting off access to crucial technology. 

• It was also supposed to be a revival of Soviet-era space glory. However, the failure underscores Russia's space ambitions.
• The recent crash follows the failure of the 2011 Fobos-Grunt mission to one of the moons of Mars, which couldn't even make it out of the Earth's orbit.
• The crash can also impact upcoming moon programmes of Russia including a possible joint effort with China.  
• Russian scientists have reportedly complained frequently about the programmed being managed by people with unrealistic vanity goals, corruption.and a decline in the scientific education system.

The race to the Moon's south pole

• No country has landed any mission on the Moon's south pole so far. Though, the Soviet Union, China, and the US have successfully made soft landings on the other parts of the moon. 
•  India and Russia were in the latest race to soft land on the moon's south pole and make history. With Russia out of the race, it's only India's Chandrayaan-3 that remains. 

• Chandrayaan-3 will try to soft land on the moon's south pole this week. India's last attempt with Chandrayaan-2 failed to soft land and crashed on the moon's surface. 
• Scientists think the moon's south pole, which is always in shade, may hold frozen water and other precious elements that can be used in the future as fuel.