Private Japanese spacecraft crashes on moon

The Japanese space company ispace said its craft, named Resilience, on Friday failed to land safely on the surface of the moon. Controllers said they lost communication with the vehicle while it performed maneuvers to touch down on the moon. A laser used to measure the distance between the lander and moon malfunctioned, preventing the craft from decelerating enough to land safely, according to the company. After mission controllers determined it was impossible to restore communication with the spacecraft, the company concluded the mission.

What was the goal of the mission? A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15 carried Resilience and another lander built by Firefly Aerospace into orbit. The Firefly craft successfully landed on the moon in March and the ispace vehicle was scheduled to land this week. Resilience was carrying multiple scientific customer payloads, including a micro rover built by the European Space Agency. Water electrolyzer equipment, a deep space radiation probe, and a food production experiment were also on board.

Firefly Aerospace claimed to become the first private company to successfully put a lander on the moon. Only a handful of countries have accomplished the feat.

Has ispace attempted a landing before? The company in 2023 was the first private company to attempt a lunar landing with its HAKUTO-R Mission 1. After successfully reaching lunar orbit in April of that year, the spacecraft crashed after its altitude sensor malfunctioned during an attempted landing.

Dig deeper: Read Elizabeth Russell’s report about how astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore leaned on his faith during his unexpectedly long space mission.