First private moon landing appears to have failed – By Tom Clarke (Sky News) / April 25, 2023
Japan’s ispace Inc hoped the Hakuto-R lander would touch down on the moon – but contact has been lost.
An attempt to land the first privately-funded spacecraft on the moon appears to have failed.
Japan’s ispace Inc hoped its Hakuto-R lander would touch down in the moon’s Atlas crater after a 100-day journey.
But after completing its final orbit of the moon, and decelerating from 6000 kilometres per hour to a walking pace a few metres above the surface, the signal from the lander was lost.
“We have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,” said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace.
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