The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States kicked off in the Cold War era and produced Soviet successes with Sputnik 1 in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin’s space flight in 1961. Not to be outdone, U.S. President John F. Kennedy vowed to land a man on the Moon and return him safely home by the end of the decade — a feat accomplished in July of 1969 with Apollo 11. 

The Soviets had three successful lunar missions — all robotic — in the 1970s. But somewhere between then and now, lunar expeditions stalled out. So the Luna 25 expedition, launched August 10th, was Russia’s attempt to pick up where the Soviets left off almost half a century ago. 

On one of my favorite podcasts (“America This Week”), Matt Taibbi recently observed that “In Russia, you basically figure in…an 86 percent error rate into everything.” Turns out that was prescient, as Luna 25 met with a rather abrupt, unintended end when it plowed into the Moon and blew a crater several meters deep in its surface over the weekend. 

As my RedState colleague streiff observed, Luna 25 reached the Moon in the most Russian way possible. Not gonna lie — much as I’m a fan of space exploration, there’s something rather humorously gratifying about Russia being so very Russia. 

This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Monday, August 21st. Audio included below.