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STORY: Russia's first moon mission in 47 years has failed.

The Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit.

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday.

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

It added that a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of Luna-25.

The mission had raised hopes in Moscow that Russia was returning to the big power moon race.

But this failure has underscored the decline of Russia's space power since the glory days of Cold War competition.

Moscow had been the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957 - and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.

Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976.

It has been racing against India, whose spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon's south pole this week.

It also faces competition from China and the United States, which both have advanced lunar ambitions.

Luna-25's failure means that Russia may not be the first to sample the frozen water which scientists believe the south pole of the moon holds.

It was not immediately clear what long-term impact the failed mission would have on the country's moon program.

The crash comes as Russia's $2 trillion economy faces its biggest external challenge for decades: the pressure of both Western sanctions and fighting the most significant land war in Europe since World War Two.