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Russia’s Luna-25 Smashes into Moon in Failure

In this image made from video released by Roskosmos State Space Corporation, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (Roskosmos State Space Corporation via AP, File)
In this image made from video released by Roskosmos State Space Corporation, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (Roskosmos State Space Corporation via AP, File)
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Russia’s Luna-25 Smashes into Moon in Failure

In this image made from video released by Roskosmos State Space Corporation, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (Roskosmos State Space Corporation via AP, File)
In this image made from video released by Roskosmos State Space Corporation, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (Roskosmos State Space Corporation via AP, File)

Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed after its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and smashed into moon.

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft shortly after a problem occurred as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit on Saturday.

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," Roskosmos said in a statement.

Failure for the prestige mission underscores the decline of Russia's space power since the glory days of Cold War competition when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth - Sputnik 1, in 1957 - and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.

Russia has not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin. Luna-25 was supposed to execute a soft landing on the south pole of the moon on Aug. 21, according to Russian space officials.

Russia has been racing against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon's south pole this week, and more broadly against China and the United States which both have advanced lunar ambitions.

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Mussels Invade Swiss Lakes, Coating Fishing Nets and Threatening Wildlife

Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Mussels Invade Swiss Lakes, Coating Fishing Nets and Threatening Wildlife

Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Fisherman Claude Delley rattles the metal frame of his net against the side of his boat on Switzerland's Lake Neuchatel, trying to shake off dozens of tiny, brown mussels.

Some plop back into the water but most stay put. The sharp shells of the creatures - a fast-spreading, invasive species originally from the Black Sea - work away at the netting, meaning he has to replace it twice as often as before.

"There is no solution," he said. "As soon as the mussel clings to the net, it stays there."

It is not just the nets. The Quagga mussels have clogged up underwater pipelines. Stéphan Jacquet, one of a team of researchers studying the species, said he had seen Swiss native crayfish, whose population is in decline, encrusted in the creatures, threatening suffocation.

The mussels also consume huge amounts of microscopic plants called phytoplankton, leaving less for other lake creatures to eat.

"Potentially all biological categories and major links in the food chain can be impacted," Jacquet, who works at the INRAE CARRTEL laboratory further south in Thonon-les-Bains, said.

The mussels were first detected in Switzerland in the River Rhine near Basel in 2014. Since then, they have spread to colonize at least six Swiss lakes including Lake Geneva.

The population, which has few predators, is poised to multiply up to 20 times in Switzerland in the next two decades, according to a 2023 study by aquatic research institute Eawag and Swiss universities based on trends seen in the Great Lakes of the United States since the 1980s.

The mussels are already present in France and Germany.

It is not known exactly how each lake was invaded, but mussel larvae can spread on rivers or currents and be introduced into new bodies of water when boats or equipment are moved.

Once in, the species multiplies rapidly with one individual capable of producing hundreds of thousands of larvae.

"When we look underwater, we can see that it has an exponential colonization, very significant, as these ecosystems are now completely covered, from the surface to the depths," Jacquet said.

Some Swiss lakes have been spared, including Lake Zurich and Lake Lucerne. In some places, authorities are now considering new rules for cleaning and shipping boats to stop the spread.