Japan iSpace Loses Contact After Moon Landing Attempt

A spacecraft from Japan attempted to land on the moon’s surface on Tuesday. This was the world’s first lunar landing for a commercially developed spacecraft. The spacecraft had a rover developed in the United Arab Emirates. However, the company lost contact with the spacecraft after the landing attempt.

The spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 11, carried by a SpaceX rocket. It then traveled for three months to enter the moon’s orbit, located about 239,000 miles (383,000 kilometers) away from Earth. The lander traveled a total of 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) through space.

The touchdown was planned for Tuesday at 12:40 p.m. ET, which is Wednesday at 1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time.

After the expected communications blackout, the mission control team worked to regain contact with the vehicle. However, they were not able to communicate with it 20 minutes after the planned landing time.

Earthrise at an altitude of ~100 km from the lunar surface.
Taken from the ispace HAKUTO-R lander.

Unfortunately the lander is likely lost as the signal stopped before landing 🫡 pic.twitter.com/HvEu6Dy36K

— Smoke-away (@SmokeAwayyy) April 25, 2023

Takeshi Hakamada, the CEO of Ispace, delivered an update saying that they were not able to confirm a successful landing.

He also mentioned that the lunar lander, called Hakuto-R, was carrying the Rashid rover, which was built by Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in the United Arab Emirates. This was the first Arab-built lunar spacecraft. The company is investigating the situation further.

Expectations from the mission

If the lunar landing attempt had been successful, the Rashid rover, which weighed 22 pounds (10 kg), was expected to explore the Atlas Crater on the northeast of the Moon.

It would have spent most of the 14-day lunar daytime doing so. It was shared by European Space Agency (ESA), which helped with designing the rover’s wheels.

The Rashid rover was equipped with a high-resolution camera on its front mast and another on its rear. It also had a microscopic camera and a thermal imaging camera. Additionally, the rover carried a device called a “Langmuir probe” to collect samples of the plasma environment above the lunar surface, explained ESA.

Only three successful ‘controlled landings’ on the moon

Only three countries have successfully landed on the moon in history: the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. Out of these, only the US has put humans on the moon.

Japan’s Ispace attempted to land its spacecraft on the moon with a different approach from previous lunar missions. It aimed to do so as a for-profit business rather than under the banner of a single country, stated CNN.

Throughout the mission, Ispace provided updates on its Twitter account. Recently, the spacecraft captured a photograph of Earth peeking out from behind the moon while traveling through lunar orbit.

We’ve received another incredible photo from the camera onboard our Mission 1 lander!

Seen here is the lunar Earthrise during solar eclipse, captured by the lander-mounted camera at an altitude of about 100 km from the lunar surface. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/pNSI4lPnux

— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 24, 2023