Japanese aerospace biz ispace's attempt to put its Hakuto-R spacecraft down on the Moon ended in an apparent crash landing today. Communications to the craft were lost.
"We already confirmed that we established communications until the very end of the landing. However, now we've lost communications, so we have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface. Our engineers will continue to investigate the situation and we will update you with further information once we finish the investigation."
Hakamada thanked his employees and their families, and said that although the mission may not have been a complete success, the company obtained flight data up until the landing that will be invaluable for its future missions. Founded in 2010, ispace initially began as a team of engineers competing in the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition awarding up to $20 million to send a spacecraft to the lunar surface capable of then travelling 500 metres. Although the team did not win, some members, including Hakamata, decided to build their own aerospace startup aimed at building and launching private missions to the Moon.
The Hakuto-R Mission 1 would have marked the first time a private company had successfully landed on the Moon if ispace had managed to bring down its spacecraft in working order. The company has a second and third mission to launch lunar spacecraft scheduled in 2024 and 2025. Private aerospace outfits like ispace are supposed to foster new industries looking to build infrastructure or extract resources on the Moon.
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