Hakuto-R Lunar Lander Experiences Landing Failure

The Hakuto-R M1 lander which was built by the Japanese space company iSpace was launched on the 11th December 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It spent around 3 months traveling to the moon and all was looking good as Hakuto-R began its descent to the lunar surface expanding to landing on the Atlas crater on the northeast quadrant of the moon, though shortly before touching down communications with the craft were lost. Teams tried to reconnect with the craft but hadn’t been able to, so it's believed to have crash landed. If it has landed successfully it would have been the first privately funded lander to touch down on the lunar surface. All other landers are from state owned space agencies including the US, Russia and China. 

Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said: “We already confirmed that we have established communication until the very end of the landing – however, now we have lost the communication, so we have to assume that… we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface.” 

In addition to the loss of the Hakuto-R lander it was carrying two lunar rovers, the Rashid is a 22 pound rover built by the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre and was going to be the UEA's first lunar rover. The other rover was a 2-wheel baseball size rover built by JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency alongside Japanese toymaker Tomy Co and Sony. The rover was designed to take photos of the moon. 

This is step-back for Ispace though they have plans to return to the moon in 2024 and 2025 with two subsequent landers, as well Ispace has won a $73 million contract from NASA to collect and return sample of the lunar surface. 

NOTE: This is a developing story and is highly subject to change. We are awaiting imagery from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to confirm the status of the spacecraft.

UPDATE: In a recent update from iSpace, they have confirmed in a statement that the Hakuto-R has crash landed on the moon. They analyzed all the data from the mission, and it shows that Hakuto-R ran out of fuel as it was firing its boosters during descent towards the lunar surface. With the lack of fuel to power the landing boosters, the craft began to pick up speed, and then all communications with the craft were lost, Though iSpace has said that this is not a total loss, as the data they gained will ensure a future lunar landing mission will be successful, and it's an important milestone to advance space development in the private sector.