A private lunar lander from Japan has fallen silent while descending to the moon with a mini rover and its fate was unknown.
The Tokyo-based company ispace announced on Friday that its lunar lander successfully exited lunar orbit as scheduled, with all systems appearing to function properly. However, after the hour-long descent, there was no immediate confirmation of the landing’s success.
As anticipation grew, the company’s livestream showing the landing attempt was suddenly cut off. Over two hours passed, and ispace reported that it still hadn’t made contact with the spacecraft, although efforts to establish a connection were ongoing.
The lightweight rover, weighing only 5 kilograms, was designed to move cautiously in circles near the lander at a speed of only a few centimeters per second. It was able to travel up to one kilometer away from the lander and was expected to function for the two-week duration of its mission, coinciding with the period of daylight on the Moon.
Takeshi Hakamada, chief executive and founder of ispace, considered the latest moonshot “merely a steppingstone,” with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement, and even more to follow.
Minutes before the attempted landing, Hakamada assured everyone that ispace had learned from its first failed mission.
“Engineers did everything they possibly could” to ensure success this time, he said.
