Hakuto-R may have miscalculated altitude, says company after losing contact with spacecraft
Japan’s ispace said its attempt to make the first private moon landing had failed after losing contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander when it unexpectedly accelerated and probably crashed on the lunar surface.
Ispace, which delivers payloads such as rovers to the moon and sells related data, listed on the Tokyo stock exchange only two weeks ago and a frenzy of excitement around its prospects had driven up its shares seven-fold since then. Japan, which has set itself a goal of sending astronauts to the moon by the late 2020s, has had some recent setbacks. The national space agency last month had to destroy its new medium-lift H3 rocket upon reaching space after its second-stage engine failed to ignite. Its solid-fuel Epsilon rocket also failed after launch in October.
The lander completed eight out of 10 mission objectives in space that will provide valuable data for the next landing attempt in 2024, ispace’s chief executive, Takeshi Hakamada, said.
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