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Japan Today
5 days ago
- Science
- Japan Today
Private lunar lander from Japan falls silent while attempting moon touchdown
This image taken from video shows flight controllers at ispace Mission Control in Tokyo awaiting confirmation of their private lunar lander touching down on the moon on Friday. By Marcia Dunn A private lunar lander from Japan fell silent while descending to the moon with a mini rover on Friday and its fate was unknown. The Tokyo-based company ispace said its lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned and everything seemed to be going well. But there was no immediate word on the outcome, following the hourlong descent. As the tension mounted, the company's livestream of the attempted landing came to an abrupt end. 'We haven't been able to confirm,' one of the commentators said in Japanese, but Mission Control 'will continuously attempt to communicate with the lander.' The encore came two years after the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience carried a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house for placement on the moon's dusty surface. Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience was targeting the top of the moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Plans had called for the 2.3-meter Resilience to beam back pictures within hours and for the lander to lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface this weekend. Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sported a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for NASA. The rover, weighing just five kilograms, was going to stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than a couple centimeters per second. It was capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a one kilometer from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight. Besides science and tech experiments, there was an artistic touch. The rover held a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considered the latest moonshot 'merely a steppingstone,' with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement, and even more to follow. Minutes before the attempted landing, Hakamada assured everyone that ispace had learned from its first failed mission. 'Engineers did everything they possibly could' to ensure success this time, he said. Chief financial officer Jumpei Nozaki promised to continue the lunar quest regardless of the outcome. Ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures, Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's U.S. subsidiary, said at a conference last month. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it's less than the first one which exceeded $100 million. Two other U.S. companies are aiming for moon landings by year's end: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic's first lunar lander missed the moon altogether in 2024 and came crashing back through Earth's atmosphere. For decades, governments competed to get to the moon. Only five countries have pulled off successful robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. Of those, only the U.S. has landed people on the moon: 12 NASA astronauts from 1969 through 1972. NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon next year. That would be followed a year or more later by the first lunar landing by a crew in more than a half-century, with SpaceX's Starship providing the lift from lunar orbit all the way down to the surface. China also has moon landing plans for its own astronauts by 2030. © 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FAA demands an accident investigation into SpaceX's latest out-of-control Starship flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration is demanding an accident investigation into this week's out-of-control Starship flight by SpaceX. Tuesday's test flight from Texas lasted longer than the previous two failed demos of the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, which ended in flames over the Atlantic. The latest spacecraft made it halfway around the world to the Indian Ocean, but not before going into a spin and breaking apart. The FAA said Friday that no injuries or public damage were reported. The first-stage booster — recycled from an earlier flight — also burst apart while descending over the Gulf of Mexico. But that was the result of deliberately extreme testing approved by the FAA in advance. All wreckage from both sections of the 403-foot (123-meter) rocket came down within the designated hazard zones, according to the FAA. The FAA will oversee SpaceX's investigation, which is required before another Starship can launch. CEO Elon Musk said he wants to pick up the pace of Starship test flights, with the ultimate goal of launching them to Mars. NASA needs Starship as the means of landing astronauts on the moon in the next few years. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches another Starship mega rocket in latest demo after back-to-back explosions
After back-to-back explosions, SpaceX launched its mega rocket Starship again on Tuesday evening in hopes of making it through the entire test flight and releasing a series of mock satellites. The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off on its ninth demo from Starbase, SpaceX's launch site at the southern tip of Texas. Residents voted this month to organize as an official city. Plans called for the spacecraft to target a splashdown halfway around the world in the Indian Ocean, after popping out eight objects meant to resemble SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites. It was the first time one of CEO Elon Musk's Starships — intended for moon and Mars travel — flew with a recycled booster that aimed for the Gulf of Mexico. There were no plans to catch the booster with giant chopsticks back at the launch pad unlike earlier tests. The previous two Starships never made it past the Caribbean. The demos earlier this year ended just minutes after liftoff, raining wreckage into the ocean. No injuries or serious damage were reported, although airline travel was disrupted. The Federal Aviation Administration last week cleared Starship for another flight, expanding the hazard area and pushing the liftoff outside peak air travel times. Besides taking corrective action and making upgrades, SpaceX modified the latest spacecraft's thermal tiles and installed special catch fittings. This one was meant to sink in the Indian Ocean, but the company wanted to test the add-ons for capturing future versions back at the pad, just like the boosters. NASA needs SpaceX to make major strides over the next year with Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — in order to land astronauts back on the moon. Next year's moonshot with four astronauts will fly around the moon, but will not land. That will happen in 2027 at the earliest and require a Starship to get two astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back off again. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Epoch Times
12-05-2025
- Science
- Epoch Times
Soviet-Era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth After 53 Years Stuck in Orbit
A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. Its uncontrolled entry was confirmed by both the Russian Space Agency and European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking. The Russians indicated it came down over the Indian Ocean, but some experts were not so sure of the precise location. The European Space Agency's space debris office also tracked the spacecraft's doom after it failed to appear over a German radar station. It was not immediately known how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system's hottest planet. The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said. Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction. Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity's tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander—an estimated 3 feet across—was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds. Related Stories 5/2/2025 4/20/2025 Any surviving wreckage will belong to Russia under a United Nations treaty. After following the spacecraft's downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft's deteriorating condition after so long in space. After so much anticipation, some observers were disappointed by the lingering uncertainty over the exact whereabouts of the spacecraft's grave. 'If it was over the Indian Ocean, only the whales saw it,' Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek said via X. As of Saturday afternoon, the U.S. Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit. The U.S. Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart—and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers—was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials. It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris. By Marcia Dunn
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Soviet-era spacecraft plunges to Earth after 53 years stuck in orbit
A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. Its uncontrolled entry was confirmed by both the Russian Space Agency and European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking. The Russians indicated it came down over the Indian Ocean, but some experts were not so sure of the precise location. The European Space Agency's space debris office also tracked the spacecraft's doom after it failed to appear over a German radar station. It was not immediately known how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system's hottest planet. The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said. Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction. Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity's tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). Any surviving wreckage will belong to Russia under a United Nations treaty. After following the spacecraft's downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft's deteriorating condition after so long in space. After so much anticipation, some observers were disappointed by the lingering uncertainty over the exact whereabouts of the spacecraft's grave. 'If it was over the Indian Ocean, only the whales saw it,' Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek said via X. As of Saturday afternoon, the U.S. Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit. The U.S. Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials. It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press
