Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace in making successful commercial moon landings amid a global race that includes state-run lunar missions from China and India.
Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, had problems measuring its distance to the surface and could not slow its descent fast enough, the company said, adding it has not been able to communicate with Resilience after a likely hard landing.
A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent when flight data was lost less than two minutes before the scheduled touchdown time during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo.
“We’re not facing any immediate financial deterioration or distress because of the event,“ CFO Jumpei Nozaki said in the press conference, citing recurring investor support.
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The lander had targeted Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900 km (560 miles) from the moon's north pole.
Resilience in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March.
Japan last year became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander.
“Expectations for ispace have not faded,“ Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in an X post.
For its third mission in 2027, ispace's U.S. unit is building a bigger lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services for the Artemis program. The company projects six more missions in the U.S. and Japan through 2029.
“To meet NASA’s expectations, we’ll support our U.S. subsidiary to keep up with development and play a role.”
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