First Private Company Attempting Moon Landing Loses Contact With Spacecraft Moments Before Touchdown

A Japanese company attempting to become the first private entity to land a spacecraft on the moon said its attempt to make history was unsuccessful Tuesday. 

Tokyo-based company ispace, which develops spacecraft technology and builds landers and rovers, attempted to land its unmanned Mission 1 lunar lander on the northeastern sector of the moon around 12:40 p.m. ET Tuesday. As the spacecraft reached its final 30 feet of descent while traveling at 16 mph, the control team lost contact with it, the Associated Press reported. 

“We have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,” ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said, according to CNBC.

Controllers for ispace reportedly had blank expressions as time went by after losing contact with the spacecraft. A commentator for the craft’s landing webcast told everyone watching to remain patient as the controllers waited to regain connection, but ispace employees were unable to reconnect to the spacecraft. 

The primary landing site for our HAKUTO-R Mission 1 is Atlas Crater, located in the northeastern quadrant of the Moon. (1/3)

📸 @NASA #ispace #HAKUTO_R #lunarquest pic.twitter.com/qmomqdg17J

— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 25, 2023

The seven-foot-tall moon lander was carrying a mini lunar rover sent by the United Arab Emirates and also had a robot from Japan intended to roll around in the moon dust, the AP reported. The moon lander also carried other scientific research equipment and payloads from government agencies and companies in the U.S. and Canada. 

The Japanese company outlined 10 milestones for the Mission 1 lunar lander and had completed eight of those goals, CNBC reported. The ninth goal was landing on the moon’s surface and the final goal was to establish a power supply and communication with Earth.  

Last year, ispace got a $73 million contract with NASA to team up with Draper, a Massachusetts-based research organization, to fly cargo to the moon’s surface in 2025. 

Only the U.S., Russia, and China have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. An Israeli nonprofit organization attempted a moon landing in 2019, but its craft was destroyed during an attempted landing. 

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The failed landing from ispace comes days after American rocket company SpaceX attempted a launch of the largest rocket ever built. The Starship rocket climbed 24 miles from its launch platform in Texas before it exploded during the stage of separation from its boosters. 

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk remained optimistic after the launch and explosion, saying that his employees “learned a lot” for the next test launch.