Hakuto-R: The Japanese moon landing mission failed

Its president and CEO announces that the Japanese startup ispace, which was attempting the first private landing of a spacecraft, has lost contact with it and the mission is believed to have failed.

The unmanned Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) spacecraft was scheduled to land on the lunar surface at 19:40 (Greece time).

It was launched in December from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a rocket belonging to the private company SpaceX. According to the company, contact with him was lost at the time of the moon landing.

“We think we missed the moon landing,” said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and president of ISPACE.

“Our engineers will continue to analyze the situation,” he added.

The successful landing of the M1 would be good news for Japanese aerospace technology, which has suffered many setbacks in recent years.

However, Tokyo has great ambitions and aims to send Japanese astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade.

It should be noted that so far only the United States, Russia and China have carried out controlled lunar landings, while no company has reached the lunar surface.

The name Hakuto refers to the white rabbit who lives on the moon according to Japanese mythology. The mission is a finalist for Google’s Lunar XPrize Competition, but it’s finally being done as a commercial project.

moment of departure

With information from APE-MPE