5 days ago
Japan firm's second attempt to put lander on moon fails
Tokyo-based venture firm ispace says its second attempt to touch down a lunar lander on the surface of the moon ended in failure. It had aimed to become the first private Japanese company to successfully complete a lunar landing.
The CEO of ispace, Hakamada Takeshi, said: "We concluded it was difficult to complete our second mission to touch down on the moon's surface. So, we decided to end it."
The lander started its descent after 3 a.m. on Friday, Japan time. It was scheduled to touch down on a crater-less area in the moon's northern hemisphere at 4:17.
But ispace announced about 15 minutes later that it had yet to establish communication with the lander.
The firm held a news conference and revealed that the lander was not able to slow down to the scheduled touchdown speed. The company's CEO said the lander was likely to have had a hard landing.
Hakamada also said: "It's our duty to thoroughly use the lessons from this failure for the next time. We want to continue maintaining the current trend of lunar exploration and activities in Japan.
A rocket carrying the craft lifted off from the US state of Florida in January. The lander entered orbit about 100 kilometers above the moon in late May.
The first lunar landing attempt by ispace failed in 2023. It later overhauled the lander's control system and changed the touchdown target for the second mission. Only two US firms have successfully performed lunar landings.
