Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft suffers technical glitch in pre-landing maneuver

Russia reported an “abnormal situation” Saturday on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft, which launched earlier this month. The country’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the spacecraft ran into trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit. Racing to land against an Indian craft, the spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, which scientists believe may contain frozen water that could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel. Also on Saturday, the spacecraft produced its first results. Though Roscosmos said the information was undergoing analysis, it reported that the preliminary data obtained contained information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil and that its equipment had registered a “micrometeorite impact.”