The launch of Russia’s Luna-2026 mission to the Moon may be rescheduled from 2027 to 2026, the head of Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos said on Thursday.

"I believe that by stepping up work on the Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions, we will receive the results that we unfortunately weren’t able to get from the Luna-25 mission," the Roscosmos chief added.

He said the space agency will accelerate its next two moon missions: Luna 26 and Luna 27, which could give Roscosmos all the science it lost with the failure of Luna 25.

Russia's first lunar lander mission in 47 years ended in failure when Luna-25 crashed into the moon. Credit: Space.com | ...

Russia’s state space agency on Thursday announced plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon as part of its long-term ambitions for lunar exploration. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov ...

Initially, Roscosmos and the European Space Agency planned to partner on Luna 25, as well as Luna 26, Luna 27 and the ExoMars rover.

Russian space reporter Anatoly Zak said that it seems possible that Roscosmos has lost communication with Luna 25 but will continue its efforts to try to contact the spacecraft.

Luna-26 will be sent up into the Moon's orbit for "remote scientific measurements and as a possible communications relay for the next lander mission," according to the European Space Agency.

Russia’s Luna-25 lander met an untimely end this weekend, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Luna-25 crashed on the Moon sometime on Saturday afternoon (Moscow time) after ...

Roscosmos said a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 lander.

Those subsequent moon missions will likely be delayed due to Luna-25's failure, as Roscosmos investigates to find the root cause of the probe's crash into the moon.