Global Courant 2023-04-26 01:03:06
TOKYO — A Japanese startup attempting a first private landing on the moon said Wednesday it had lost communication with its spacecraft and assumed the lunar mission had failed.
Ispace said it was unable to establish communication with the unmanned Hakuto-R lunar lander after its expected landing time, a frustrating end to a mission that began with a launch from the United States more than four months ago.
“We have not confirmed communications with the lander,” a company official told reporters about 25 minutes after the expected landing.
“We must assume that we have not been able to complete the landing on the lunar surface,” the official said.
Officials said they would continue to try to contact the spacecraft, which was carrying payloads from several countries, including a lunar rover from the United Arab Emirates.
Ispace founder and chief executive officer Takeshi Hakamada said after the apparently botched landing that they had collected data from the spacecraft up to the planned landing and would examine it for signs of what happened.
Pioneering efforts in private space
The lander, which is just over 2 meters high and weighs 340 kg, has been in orbit around the moon since last month.
Its descent and landing was fully automated and it had to restore communications as soon as it landed.
So far, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface, all through government-sponsored programs.
In April 2019, the Israeli organization SpaceIL saw their lander crash on the lunar surface.
India also tried to land a spacecraft on the moon in 2016, but it crashed.
