A private space firm from Japan likely did not stick its moon landing on Thursday, which would make this the second failed attempt to get to the lunar surface for the company in the past two years.
The mission, dubbed Hakuto-R by the company ispace, tried to touch down around 3:15 p.m. ET on June 5 after a long 4.5-month meandering journey to save on fuel. But the team lost communication with the lander — a foreboding sign that something probably went wrong.
UPDATE: Jun. 5, 2025, 9:00 p.m. EDT A press conference held by ispace at 8 p.m. ET didn’t divulge much additional information. The company’s executives confirmed communication was lost with the lander and currently consider the mission a failure, even though they cannot confirm a crash occurred. The company’s leadership team stated they are undeterred in their mission to reach the moon and have two missions planned for 2027.
Ispace invited the public to watch alongside its Tokyo-based mission control, where it was already the early morning hours of June 6. The landing sequence lasted about an hour as the robotic spacecraft Resilience performed a braking engine burn and followed automated commands to adjust the lander’s orientation and speed.
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