Russia's attempt to land on the moon for the first time in almost half a century ended in disaster

• Russia's first mission to the moon in 47 years ended in disaster when its spacecraft crashed.
• Its space agency Roscosmos said it lost contact with the Luna-25 before discovering its fate.

Russia's first attempt to land on the moon in almost half a century ended in disaster when its spacecraft spun out of control and crashed onto the surface.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday that it had lost contact with the Luna-25 before discovering it had collided with the moon. It had been due to land on the lunar south pole on Monday.

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

Roscosmos said it would open an investigation into the loss of the spacecraft.

The Luna-25 was Russia's first attempt to land on the moon since the Luna-24 mission in 1976.

The failure is an embarrassment for Moscow and means Russia stands to be upstaged by India, which also aims to land a probe on the moon's south pole this week.