Latest news with #ispaceInc
Kyodo News
a day ago
- Business
- Kyodo News
Japan ispace fails in bid for 1st Moon landing by Asian private firm
KYODO NEWS - 16 hours ago - 15:39 | All, Japan Japanese startup ispace Inc. failed in its attempt to become the first private firm in Asia to touch down on the Moon when its lunar lander apparently crashed on Friday, dealing a blow as it seeks to catch up with U.S. rivals following an unsuccessful inaugural mission in 2023. With touchdown planned for 4:17 a.m. on Friday, Japan time, the lander, Resilience, began descending from an altitude of around 100 kilometers but was unable to decelerate to the required speed, ispace said. "Based on the circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface," the company said, adding communication had been lost. The Tokyo-based company's CEO Takeshi Hakamada apologized to supporters at a press conference, saying the outcome was "disappointing." The company will strive to identify the cause of the failure and make another attempt in 2027 with a new lander. "We would like to catch up as quickly as possible" with U.S. companies that have already achieved the feat, he said. The company's first attempt to reach the Moon's northern hemisphere in April 2023 with a different spacecraft was unsuccessful, with the lander likely having crashed on the lunar surface. Irregularities in the altitude measurement system at that time led the lander to eventually run out of fuel during descent, resulting in a free fall to the Moon's surface. U.S. company Intuitive Machines Inc. subsequently became the first private firm in the world to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface in February 2024. Resilience, transporting a rover and equipment to carry out experiments, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 15, sharing a SpaceX rocket launch with U.S. firm Firefly Aerospace Inc.'s lunar lander. Firefly's Blue Ghost, which took a different route from the ispace lander to reach the surface, touched down on the Moon on March 2. After entering lunar orbit in May, the Japanese lander -- 2.3 meters high and 2.6 meters wide -- started descending shortly after 3 a.m., with a planned deceleration from 580 km to 2 km per hour by the firing of its engine toward the lunar surface. However, data transmission stopped at an altitude of 192 meters while the lander was moving at a faster speed than expected, possibly due to the malfunction of an altitude measurement sensor. "As of 8 a.m. on June 6, 2025, mission controllers had determined that it is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored," ispace said in a press release. "It has been decided to conclude the mission." Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed hope that the latest attempt by ispace will lead to "a further leap." "My expectation for ispace will not waver," he said on the social media platform X. Related coverage: Astronaut Onishi blasts off on mission as 3rd Japanese to lead ISS Japan firm's rover ends mission on Moon, gives up surface exploration ispace to attempt June Moon landing, would be 1st by Japan firm
Japan Forward
2 days ago
- Science
- Japan Forward
ispace Moon Lander Breaks Up After Losing Contact
このページを 日本語 で読む Japanese space startup ispace announced on June 6 that its second lunar lander had failed in its attempted moon landing earlier that morning. The mission was aiming to become the first private Asian lunar landing. Based in Tokyo's Minato Ward, the space technology company had developed the lunar lander in-house. According to the company spokesperson, communication with Earth was lost just before the scheduled touchdown at 4:17 AM. ispace believes the lander crashed and suffered serious damage, rendering it inoperable. According to the company, the lander exited its circular lunar orbit at around 3:15 AM from an altitude of about 100 kilometers. It began a controlled descent lasting roughly one hour, firing its main and auxiliary engines to slow down and stabilize. The intended landing site was the "Sea of Ice" near the Moon's north pole. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of space industry startup ispace Inc, speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on June 6, 2025. (©Kyodo) With constant monitoring, the lander was tracked down to an altitude of 192 meters. Soon after, however, communication was lost. Despite efforts to restore contact communications, no signal had returned by 9:00 AM. At that point, ispace concluded the spacecraft had crashed and broken apart on the lunar surface. Flight data showed a fault in the altitude measurement system, which likely delayed deceleration. However, the exact cause is still unknown. ispace's first lander also failed in 2023 due to a similar issue. Although improvements were made, a repeat malfunction may have occurred. CEO Takeshi Hakamada, speaking with a somber expression, said: "We take these two failures very seriously. We will fully investigate the cause and evaluate whether our fixes were adequate." Author: The Sankei Shimbun このページを 日本語 で読む
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 days ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japanese Lunar Lander Fails to Safely Land on Moon; CEO ‘Gives Up on Mission'
The Yomiuri Shimbun Takeshi Hakamada, ispace Inc. CEO, second from left, speaks at a press conference on Friday in Tokyo. An attempt by Japanese space startup ispace Inc. to safely land its uncrewed lunar lander Resilience on the moon has failed, the company announced Friday. According to the Tokyo-based company, it was not able to establish communication with the lunar lander even after the planned touchdown time of 4:17 a.m. Japan time on the day. The lander is believed to have fallen and crashed into the lunar surface. We have given up on accomplishing the mission, said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada at a press conference that morning.
Kyodo News
2 days ago
- Business
- Kyodo News
Japan startup ispace fails again to put lander on Moon
KYODO NEWS - 23 minutes ago - 10:20 | All, Japan Japanese startup ispace Inc. said Friday it again failed to become the country's first private company to make a lunar landing, following its first unsuccessful attempt in 2023. The Tokyo-based company believes its lunar lander Resilience impacted the Moon's surface after failing to slow sufficiently during its descent. "We would like to catch up as quickly as possible" with U.S. companies that have already achieved the feat, CEO Takeshi Hakamada told a press conference. Resilience, transporting a rover and equipment to carry out experiments, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 15 as part of a mission to reach the Moon's northern hemisphere. It attempted a touchdown at 4:17 a.m. on Friday, Japan time. However, following the landing sequence, the company's mission control center was unable to establish communication with the lunar lander, it said. "As of 8 a.m. on June 6, 2025, mission controllers have determined that it is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored," ispace said in a press release. "It has been decided to conclude the mission." The company's first attempt to reach the Moon's northern hemisphere in April 2023 with a different spacecraft was unsuccessful. U.S. company Intuitive Machines Inc. subsequently became the first private firm in the world to successfully send a spacecraft to the lunar surface in February 2024. U.S. firm Firefly Aerospace Inc.'s lunar lander, launched in January aboard the same rocket as ispace's Resilience, touched down on the Moon on March 2. It took a different route from the ispace lander to reach the surface. Related coverage: Astronaut Onishi blasts off on mission as 3rd Japanese to lead ISS Japan firm's rover ends mission on Moon, gives up surface exploration ispace to attempt June Moon landing, would be 1st by Japan firm
Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Japan's Ispace Says It's Trying to Make Contact With Moon Lander
Tokyo-based ispace Inc. said it's trying to make contact with its lunar lander after attempting to become the first non-US company to reach the moon's surface intact. Ispace's Resilience lander was expected to touch down on the moon after 4 a.m. Japan time on Friday, but the company ended its live stream of the landing attempt without confirming the status of the mission. A press conference is scheduled for 9 a.m., the company said. The mission follows a failed attempt in 2023 when a programming error led to a crash of the spacecraft. Success today would make ispace the third company to park a spacecraft safely on the moon after Texas-based rivals Intuitive Machines Inc. and Firefly Aerospace Inc., as countries race to explore the moon. The Japanese lander launched into space aboard one of Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets in January. The rocket also launched a lander from Firefly that touched down on the lunar surface in March. Resilience was expected to dispatch its rover, named Tenacious, which is equipped with a high-definition camera and a shovel to collect lunar regolith and transmit data back to the lander. Ispace signed a contract in 2020 with NASA to provide the US agency with regolith collected on the moon's surface. Aboard the lander are customer payloads with varying purposes including a commemorative plate from Bandai Namco Research Institute Inc. — an affiliate of the entertainment company behind game brands like Pac Man and Gundam — and experimental equipment such as a device to extract hydrogen from water. Ispace plans to send its landers more frequently to the moon starting in 2027, with an aim to transport payloads two or three times a year, according to company's founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada. The plan is based on his belief that humans could start making a living on the moon as early as the 2040s. A successful mission would be a double win for Hakamada, who said in an interview before the landing attempt that Japan will lose out on opportunities to seek fresh growth if it refuses to accept failures as a course of nature. 'It'd be a huge loss for our society if failures only discourage bold attempts and trials,' he said. 'We didn't make it the first time, which was unfortunate. But we worked to make it happen the second time.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
