Kremlin plays down moon landing failure, says space program will continue

[August 29, 2023]  MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin on Tuesday said that the failure of Russia's Luna-25 mission to the Moon earlier this month was "nothing terrible" and that the main thing was to continue Russia's space exploration program. 

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage and the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, August 11, 2023. Roscosmos/Vostochny Space Centre/Handout via REUTERS

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "This is not a reason to despair, nor to tear our hair out. This is another reason to analyze the causes (of the failure) and eliminate them next time."

Luna-25, Russia's first lunar mission since 1976, crashed into the Moon on Aug. 19 after a failed orbital maneuver, in what has been seen abroad as a major blow to the Russian space program. Days later, an Indian spacecraft successfully landed on the moon.

"The main thing is not to stop. Our plans are quite ambitious and they will be implemented further," Peskov said.

(Writing by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)

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