RE: India Moon Landing Attempt 8:30 AM ET 23AUG23
August 23, 2023 at 7:33 pm
(This post was last modified: August 23, 2023 at 7:41 pm by Anomalocaris.)
The Soviet/Russian record of mission to beyond earth orbit had a few bright spots, but on the whole, the success rate had been abysmal.
The Soviet/Russian program attempted 20 separate missions to Mars between 1960 and 2011. Almost half failed to leave earth orbit, only 5 made it to Martian orbit in a state fit to report back, and only 2 accomplished the main parts of the mission.
The last 4 Soviet/russian probes to Mars, starting with Phobos 1 and 2 of 1987, were consecutive failures. 2 failed after reaching Mars, 2 failed to leave earth orbit.
After failure of Phobos-Gunt to Mars in 2011, the Russians decided to aim lower and closer to home and try with Luna 25 of this month to revive their lunar program which had been in hiatus since 1974. It also failed.
This current failed mission is callled luna 25, and not luna 43, because although the Soviet Union/ Russia attempted a total of 43 lunar missions betweem 1959 and 2023, they would only admit to 25 because they thought they could cover up the existence of the other 18, which were total unmitigated failures that didn’t even reach earth orbit where it could be readily tracked by other powers. Prior to the failed luna 25, Russia would only give the name and number to a lunar probe after the mission reached earth orbit to avoid having to explain missing numbers in the luna sequence and give their lunar exploration program the apparence of a higher success rate. But of the 25 they had to admitted to and give a number in the Luna sequence, 15 failed after leaving low earth orbit but before achieving any of their mission objective near the moon, including this last Lunar 25, giving a total of merely 10 successful missions out of 43 launched to the moon.
When you compare them to Russia’s heroic rate of no cigars, Indian, Israeli and Japanese failure to soft land on the moon on their first tries doesn’t look so bad.
The Soviet/Russian program attempted 20 separate missions to Mars between 1960 and 2011. Almost half failed to leave earth orbit, only 5 made it to Martian orbit in a state fit to report back, and only 2 accomplished the main parts of the mission.
The last 4 Soviet/russian probes to Mars, starting with Phobos 1 and 2 of 1987, were consecutive failures. 2 failed after reaching Mars, 2 failed to leave earth orbit.
After failure of Phobos-Gunt to Mars in 2011, the Russians decided to aim lower and closer to home and try with Luna 25 of this month to revive their lunar program which had been in hiatus since 1974. It also failed.
This current failed mission is callled luna 25, and not luna 43, because although the Soviet Union/ Russia attempted a total of 43 lunar missions betweem 1959 and 2023, they would only admit to 25 because they thought they could cover up the existence of the other 18, which were total unmitigated failures that didn’t even reach earth orbit where it could be readily tracked by other powers. Prior to the failed luna 25, Russia would only give the name and number to a lunar probe after the mission reached earth orbit to avoid having to explain missing numbers in the luna sequence and give their lunar exploration program the apparence of a higher success rate. But of the 25 they had to admitted to and give a number in the Luna sequence, 15 failed after leaving low earth orbit but before achieving any of their mission objective near the moon, including this last Lunar 25, giving a total of merely 10 successful missions out of 43 launched to the moon.
When you compare them to Russia’s heroic rate of no cigars, Indian, Israeli and Japanese failure to soft land on the moon on their first tries doesn’t look so bad.
