First private moon landing appears to have failed

Japan’s ispace Inc hoped the Hakuto-R lander would touch down on the moon – but contact has been lost.

An attempt to land the first privately-funded spacecraft on the moon appears to have failed.

Japan’s ispace Inc hoped its Hakuto-R lander would touch down in the moon’s Atlas crater after a 100-day journey.

But after completing its final orbit of the moon, and decelerating from 6000 kilometres per hour to a walking pace a few metres above the surface, the signal from the lander was lost.

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

The lander carried two small moon rovers, Rashid, developed by the UAE and an innovative spherical rover, SoraQ, built in Japan.

While not necessarily breaking new ground from an exploration perspective, the mission was being closely watched.

Advances in technology – and the falling cost of space launches – have raised the realistic prospect of commercial exploitation of the moon.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/first-private-moon-landing-appears-to-have-failed-12866322