Russian scientist Mikhail Marov hospitalised after Luna-25 moon mission crashed

Russia’s top scientist Mikhail Marov, who worked on the country’s latest lunar mission, was rushed to the hospital on Saturday after the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on the Moon’s surface, according to media reports.

The 90-year-old, a key consultant to the mission, suffered a “sharp deterioration” in his health after the crash, reports added.

Luna-25, Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years, was scheduled to make a soft landing on the lunar surface on August 21.

However, Roskosmos, Russia’s state space agency, said that it lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday after it headed to the pre-landing orbit. “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” the agency said in a statement.

Following the failure, Marov, one of the most reputed physicists and astronomers in Russia, was admitted to the Central Clinic Hospital (TsKB) in Moscow as his health deteriorated, reported The Sun.

Marov on Luna-25 Moon Mission

Marov had described the mission as his life’s work and said that it was his “last hope to see the revival of our lunar programme”.

“It’s sad that we didn’t manage to land the device. There was a mistake in the algorithms for launching into near-lunar orbit. It must be found,” Marov was quoted saying by an international media outlet.

• Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft smashes into the moon