A Japanese company lost contact with its intended lunar landing device

The Hakuto-R project was aimed at the moon, but did it succeed? Japanese start-up ISpace announced on Tuesday, April 25, that it had lost contact with the craft that attempted to land as it attempted to become the first private company to succeed in the risky maneuver. “We lost communication, so we have to consider that we could not complete the landing on the surface of the moon”Recognized Takeshi Hakamada, President of Icespace.

“Our engineers will continue to monitor the situation”He promised to provide more information as soon as possible and that his company will continue to do so “Efforts for Future Work”.

Only three countries have successfully landed on the moon

The Hakuto-R program lander has been in orbit about 100 kilometers from the moon for a month. Communication with the lunar surface was lost an hour after it began its descent. It carried several small vehicles, including a miniature model developed by the Japanese Space Agency in collaboration with toymaker Takara Tomy, and a rover built by the United Arab Emirates. It would have been the first craft to land from the Arab world Piloted by French scientists.

So far, only the United States, Russia, and China have successfully landed robots on the moon. In 2019, an Indian probe was also derailed, as was the one conducted by the Israeli organization SpaceIL. Two other companies, American companies Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, are due to take other machines aimed at the lunar surface in late 2023.