A Russian spacecraft has crashed into the Moon after it spun into an uncontrolled orbit, Russia’s national space agency Roskosmos says.

Roskosmos said it had lost contact with the unmanned craft shortly after a problem occurred as it was shunted into pre-landing orbit.

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

The space agency said an investigation would be launched into the causes of the crash.

The spacecraft was scheduled to land on the south pole of the Moon on Monday.

The crash follows a technical glitch the rocket experienced as it was preparing to transfer to its pre-landing orbit on Saturday. 

The spacecraft was sent to explore a part of the Moon scientists think may hold frozen water and precious elements.

The crash marks a failure in Russia’s first moon expedition in 47 years.

Russia has not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin.

Russia has been racing against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the Moon’s south pole this week.

Roskosmos boss Yuri Borisov had said the venture would be “risky”, telling President Vladimir Putin in June the probability of it succeeding was “around 70 per cent”.

In 2012, Russia’s Fobos-Grunt mission to Mars also failed when the spacecraft could not even exit the earth’s orbit before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. 

Reuters/ AFP