Moscow: A senior Russian scientist involved in the country’s lunar mission was rushed to hospital after the mission failed.
Mikhail Marov, 90, suffered ‘sharp deterioration’ in his health after Luna-25 probe crashed on the lunar surface the other day, Independent reported.
Marov told media that the devastating setback of the mission took a toll on his health.
‘I'm under observation. How can I not worry, this is largely a matter of life. It's all very hard,’ he told reporters at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
He was one of the leading physicists and astronomers to have worked on the project with which Russia hoped to revive its Soviet-era moon missions.
Mikhail Marov, who called Luna-25 the culmination of life’s work, previously worked for the space missions of the Soviet Union.
‘It is sad that it was not possible to land the apparatus. For me, perhaps, it was the last hope to see the revival of our lunar program,’ Marov was quoted as saying.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported him as saying that the reasons for failure would be ‘discussed and examined rigorously’.
With Luna-25, Moscow was hoping to make an independent lunar exploration to showcase its capabilities.
Russian space agency Roscosmos on Sunday confirmed the mission’s failure after Luna -25 lost contact.
The space agency later said, ‘The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon’.
Roscosmos, without disclosing specific details behind failure, said a ministerial investigation would study the crash's causes.