Watch Russia's Crashed Luna-25 Punch a New Crater into the Moon's Surface

The mission would have returned Russia to the Moon for the first time since the original space race. It would also have made them the first to soft land at the Moon’s South Pole, an area of particular interest thanks to stores of frozen water. Instead, their first lunar mission in half a century failed at the finish line when an anomaly sent the craft careening into the Moon at high speed.

Right away, they found a fresh crater in approximately at the spot Roscosmos estimated. Estimates put the crater’s diameter at approximately 10 meters across and located roughly 400 kilometers from Luna-25’s planned landing site.

Importantly, the most recent images of the area were more than a year old, taken in June of 2022. With that in mind, all we can know for certain is that something created a new crater between June 2022 and August 24, 2023, when the new images were taken. That said, given the proximity with where we know Luna-25 went down, it’s likely the crater was caused by the crash.

It’s not the result Russia wanted, but every accidental crater is evidence of humanity’s enduring exploratory spirit. As Wayne Gretzky once sort of said, you miss 100% of the future craters you don’t launch, or something.