On August 11, the Luna-25 rocketed off from Russia's far east.


Apparently losing control, the Russian unmanned spacecraft Luna-25 crashed into the Moon.


Russia finally launched a lunar probe after nearly 50 years.


The spacecraft's pre-landing orbit was thrown off, preventing it from being the first spacecraft to land on the south pole of the Moon.


Its purpose was to explore an area of the Moon where frozen water and precious materials are suspected to exist.


Sunday morning, the Russian space agency Roscosmos stated that it had last communicated with the Luna-25 at 11:57 p.m. GMT the night before.


Preliminary results indicate that the 800 kilogramme lander "ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon."


It was announced that a special commission would look into the mission's failure.

The loss of Luna-25 is a major setback for Roscosmos. There has been a steady decline in Russia's civilian space programmes in recent years as funding has been redirected to the country's military space programme.


In the following days, India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land at the Moon's south pole, where a rover will then proceed to investigate the area's rocks and craters and report back to Earth with its findings.


The permanently darkened areas near the south pole of the Moon have a probability of harbouring water.

Losing the Luna-25 spacecraft was described as "unfortunate" by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).


Every space mission poses technical difficulties and sometimes even risks human lives. They expressed their sadness on the loss of command on Luna-25.


Roscosmos has admitted that the Luna-25 mission could be unsuccessful. The spacecraft lifted out from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region on August 11 and entered lunar orbit on August 15.


The Indian landing was expected to be a gentle touch down several days beforehand.


There have been soft landings on the Moon by the United States and China, but no country has yet reached the south pole.


Russia's Luna-25 probe was the first human mission to the Moon after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1976. Mission 24's lunar landing was a huge success.