The unmanned craft was due to make a soft landing on the Moon's south pole, but failed after encountering problems as it moved into its pre-landing orbit.

It was Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years.

Russia has been racing to the Moon's south pole against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on there next week.

No country has ever landed on the south pole before, although both the US and China have landed softly on the Moon's surface.

No report on whether or not Russia was attempting to use repurposed anti-ship missiles like the ones they use to attack schools and hospitals here on Earth.

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[–] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

This was my impression. This was a rushed propaganda mission for prestige using existing material.

Still, I'm sure there would have been some useful science done, but the main point of the mission was that Putin's regime would have been able to crow about how great Russia is doing.

Of course, if it had succeeded, it might have spurred some competitive spirit in other space powers.