W.Minh Tuan
On August 11, 2023, the Russians launched the Luna-25 spacecraft to the moon, weighing 1605 kg, scheduled to August 21, after 10 days of flight, will land on the moon’s south pole. But it did not land lightly, instead, it crashed to the moon unexpectedly, and lost all signal.
The Russian Luna-25 spacecraft control center Roscosmos has lost contact with the poor Luna-25, and the fate of the Luna-25 is unknown.
The Russians need to launch other spacecraft, for example Luna- 26, Luna- 27 ,,, to that place on the moon to find out the poor fate of Luna-25.
Luna 25 was launched on August 11, 2023 from the southernmost Russian small space city, Amur Oblast, about 8000 km from Moscow, located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers, and located next to China’s northernmost border province, Heilongjiang province, a picturesque province covered with snow as beautiful as a painting of China.
Previously, the Russians still launched spacecraft from the Baikonur space station, about 2100 km from Moscow, in the republic of Kazakhstan.
The Baikonur space station was built by the Soviet Union in 1955, and every year, from here, the Soviet Union, and then Russia, have launched about 20 spacecraft into space annually.
But after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia took over the legacies of the Soviet Union, and Russia suddenly found that the Baikonur space station was no longer hers, but that of independent Kazakhstan, and every year, Russia must pay the rent of Baikonur land to Kazakhstan.
Russian President Putin is a very smart person, he realizes that depending on Kazakhstan is dangerous, because diplomatic relations between the two countries can break down at any time.
So since 2011, Russian President Putin ordered the start of construction of a new space station in Russian territory, located in the city of Amur Oblast, in the southernmost part of Russia, next to China, and has latitude is about 50 degrees, roughly the same as Baikonur’s latitude of about 46 degrees. This ensures that the gravity of the earth to Russian spacecraft when launched from Amur Oblast is the same as that from Baikonur, thus allowing spacecraft launched from Amur Oblast without restructured and re-design of engine of spacecraft.
And President Putin’s prediction was proven, because on March 7, 2023, the Kazakh government announced that it had taken control of the Baiterek launch complex, one of the launch sites at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and ordered banned many Russian officials from leaving the country, and prevented the Russian space agency Roscosmos from liquidating assets in Baitereck.
One of the reasons leading to the Kazahkstan government’s partial seizure of Baikonur space station, was Russia’s failure to pay a debt of $ 29.7 million in rent for Baikonur land.
But it’s really not because Russia can’t pay its Baikonur land rent, but because Russia invades Ukraine, and Kazahkstan supports Ukraine, because Kazahkstan worries that if Ukraine fails, Russia will one day too, invades Kazakhstan.
So Luna-25 was launched to the moon from the small city of Amur Oblast, not from the large space city Baikonur as before.
Like NASA of the United States, the United States has failed many times in space launches, many American crews have been killed, and this time, Russia lost the Luna-25.
Thankfully there was no crew on this Luna ship.
The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to launch a spacecraft into earth orbit. Those are the ships named Sputnic, and the 83 kg, 58 cm long Sputnic 1 spacecraft was first launched into earth orbit on October 4, 1957, circled the earth for 1 hour 36 minutes, and circled around the earth for more than 3 months, until January 4, 1958 was pulled down to earth.
On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnic 2 into space, weighing up to 508 kg. On this Sputnic 2, the Soviet Union put the dog Laika on board. This is a derelict stray dog running on the streets of Moscow, and was taken by Soviet space scientists put it on the Sputnic 2 spacecraft for experiments.
Poor dog Laika, he died of heat after 4 rounds of Sputnic 2 orbiting the earth.
The Americans panicked when they saw that the Soviet Union had successfully sent two Sputnic spacecrafts to space, so the Americans immediately raced with the Soviets, and on December 6, 1957, the Americans launched the first spacecraft name Vanhguard TV-3, also known as Vanguard Test Vehicle-Three, was tiny, weighing only 1.5 kg, 16.3 cm long, for test flight.
But unfortunately for the Americans, this tiny Vangguard TV-3 crashed right into its own launch pad shortly after launch, just 2 seconds after launch, and was blown to pieces.
More than a month later, on January 31, 1958, the Americans rushed to launch their second spacecraft, Explorer 1, this time successfully.
The Soviets and then Russians were also in a hurry to compete with the United States, so they launched a spacecraft to the moon, on September 9, 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 2 to the moon, not the Sputnic, and was intentionally crashed into the surface of the moon on September 14, 1959.
In 1961, the Soviet Union sent cosmonaut Gagarin into space, the first person to fly into space.
He flew only once around the earth, aboard Vostok 1, on April 12, 1961, but is forever inscribed in human history as the first person to fly into space.
Unfortunately for Mr. Gagarin, on March 27, 1968, he was killed, when piloting the MiG-15UTI test aircraft, and the plane lost control and crashed to the ground.
But Mr. Gagarin’s flying career inspired Americans to develop their own space industry, and on July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong and his flying companion Buzz Aldin flew on Apollo 11 landed safely on the moon.
The first Russian-Soviet spaceship entered Earth orbit, the first Russian cosmonaut Gagarin, and the first Russian dog Laika, flew into space for the first time.
But the American astronaut was the first to fly to the moon, and Mr. Nail Armstrong set his first foot on the moon, with his famous quote on July 21, 1969, when he touched the surface bumpy, convex side of the moon:
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” –
Both the United States and Russia-Soviet Union have respectable scientific achievements, and one reason for the two countries to succeed, is because they compete with each other, that is a great motivation, good for the development of science and human society.
Thanks to the success of the Soviet Union in developing the space industry, Vietnam had a pilot of Mic 21 aircraft, names Pham Tuan, who was flown to a spaceship by the Soviet Union on March 27, 1980 on the Soyuz 36 spacecraft.
Vietnamese people like to joke, so they put a joke that pilot Pham Tuan hitchhiked on a spaceship, but didn’t know how to fly a spaceship, and he took advantage of bringing water lilies from his hometown Thai Binh, boarded the spaceship to experiment on raising pigs on the spaceship, because mulberry is a famous pig feed in Vietnam.!!!
The Americans had a painful defeat in the launch of spaceships.
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded after 73 seconds of flight, killing all seven crew members on board.
On January 16, 2003, the United States launched the space shuttle Colombia, with 7 astronauts. But after 16 days of flying, on Saturday, February 1, 2003, while returning to Earth, the space shuttle Columbia suddenly exploded over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board, in there was an Indian female astronaut.
The Russians were more cautious, after Mr. Gagarin was killed, the Russians did not send people to orbit anymore, in order to avoid loss of life on spacecraft.
Now, with the Luna-25 flying to the moon after 47 years of no flight, the Russians are doomed.
The Americans and the enemies of the Russians should not clap their hands for joy at this defeat of the Russians.
Please sympathize with the Russians.
Of course, the Russians’ invasion of Ukraine is objectionable, but be tolerant of them, tolerant of the Russians’ mistakes and failures.
Leave the door open, so that later, after the war in Ukraine is over, the peace-loving world can shake hands and talk happily with the Russians, with Mr. Putin – if he is still safe after the war. /
