On Saturday, the Russian space program lost the Luna 25 spacecraft, a relatively small vehicle that was due to land on the Moon this week.
But unlike NASA, China, India, and several companies in the United States and Japan, the Luna 25 effort does not presage the coming of a golden era of exploration for Russia.
Rather, it is more properly seen as the last gasp of a dying empire, an attempt by the modern state of Russia, and President Vladimir Putin, to revive old glories.
However, there have been some issues of late with leaks and other problems that have raised serious questions about quality control and the ability of the Russians to manufacture these vehicles.
Before the launch of Luna 25, Putin made it clear that this mission was important for Russia as a signal that the country was returning to great power status.
Sometimes such strength has been difficult to project, especially since Russia is flying the same vehicles as it did during Leonid Brezhnev’s tenure as the Soviet ruler, and has only flown to the International Space Station for a quarter of a century.
The original article contains 695 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
On Saturday, the Russian space program lost the Luna 25 spacecraft, a relatively small vehicle that was due to land on the Moon this week.
But unlike NASA, China, India, and several companies in the United States and Japan, the Luna 25 effort does not presage the coming of a golden era of exploration for Russia.
Rather, it is more properly seen as the last gasp of a dying empire, an attempt by the modern state of Russia, and President Vladimir Putin, to revive old glories.
However, there have been some issues of late with leaks and other problems that have raised serious questions about quality control and the ability of the Russians to manufacture these vehicles.
Before the launch of Luna 25, Putin made it clear that this mission was important for Russia as a signal that the country was returning to great power status.
Sometimes such strength has been difficult to project, especially since Russia is flying the same vehicles as it did during Leonid Brezhnev’s tenure as the Soviet ruler, and has only flown to the International Space Station for a quarter of a century.
The original article contains 695 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Shame about all those scientists who are about to jump out of Windows.
I think this is just the first part