Bius-L, the inertial reference unit for determining acceleration and orientation using fiber-optic gyroscopes and an accelerometer was designed by the Moscow-based Academician Pilyugin Center. The device was built using only Russian components.
The source responded in the affirmative when asked if a malfunction of Bius-L could have caused Luna-25 to crash. A mechanism can only be considered fail-safe if it has been tested, while Bius-L had not undergone any tests in outer space, the source added.
However, the malfunction in the inertial reference unit is only one of the possible causes under consideration by a special task force inquiring into the lunar mission's crash.
On August 11, the Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket lifted off from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome and launched into orbit Luna-25, the first Russian lunar mission in almost 50 years and the first one in Russia's independent space history.
On August 19, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said that an emergency situation occurred on board the Luna-25 module that prevented its transition to the pre-landing orbit with the specified parameters. The next day, Roscosmos confirmed Luna-25 seemingly crashed into the moon's surface after going into an unplanned orbit. Communication with the spacecraft was lost at around 2:57 p.m. Moscow time (11:57 GMT) on August 19.