![\"Japan](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-04\/v300jbpg_japanese-ispaces-hakutor-lunar-lander_625x300_25_April_23.jpg\"\/ "\\"Japan")
<\/div>\nThe Japanese space company said that a lander on the Moon has ended in failure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tokyo: <\/b><\/p>\n
Japanese start-up ispace conceded Wednesday its attempt to become the first company to land on the Moon had ended in failure, but pledged to move ahead with new missions.<\/p>\n
The unmanned Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander had been scheduled to touch down on the Moon’s surface overnight, but about 25 minutes after the landing was to have occurred, the firm could not establish contact.<\/p>\n
“It has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface,” ispace said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The company said its engineers were working to establish why the landing had failed.<\/p>\n
“Although we do not expect to complete the lunar landing at this time, we believe that we have fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience,” ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada said.<\/p>\n
“What is important is to feed this knowledge and learning back to Mission 2 and beyond,” he added.<\/p>\n
He said the firm is currently developing two further attempts to land on the lunar surface and the setback would not change that.<\/p>\n
Still, the apparent crash will be a frustrating end to a mission that began with the lander’s launch last December aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n
The vessel was carrying payloads from several countries, including a lunar rover from the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
– Pioneering private space effort-<\/strong><\/p>\n Standing just over two metres (6.5 feet) tall and weighing 340 kilogrammes (750 pounds), the lander entered lunar orbit last month.<\/p>\n Its descent and landing were fully automated and the craft was supposed to reestablish communication as soon as it touched down.<\/p>\n So far, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a spacecraft on the lunar surface, all through government-sponsored programmes.<\/p>\n In April 2019, Israeli organisation SpaceIL watched their lander crash into the Moon’s surface.<\/p>\n India also attempted to land a spacecraft on the moon in 2016, but it crashed.<\/p>\n Two US companies, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, are scheduled to attempt Moon landings later this year.<\/p>\n “We congratulate the ispace inc team on accomplishing a significant number of milestones on their way to today’s landing attempt,” Astrobotic said in a tweet.<\/p>\n “We hope everyone recognises — today is not the day to shy away from pursuing the lunar frontier, but a chance to learn from adversity and push forward.”<\/p>\n – Plans for settling the Moon –<\/strong><\/p>\n Ispace, which listed its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market earlier this month, was already planning its next mission before the failure of Hakuto-R.<\/p>\n The spacecraft, whose name references the Moon-dwelling white rabbit of Japanese folklore, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on December 11.<\/p>\n The lander carried several lunar rovers, including a round, baseball-sized robot jointly developed by Japan’s space agency and toy manufacturer Takara Tomy, the creator of the Transformer toys.<\/p>\n It also had the 10-kilogram (22-pound) chair-sized Rashid rover developed by the United Arab Emirates and an experimental imaging system from Canadensys Aerospace.<\/p>\n With just 200 employees, ispace has said it “aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon.”<\/p>\n Hakamada touted the mission as laying “the groundwork for unleashing the Moon’s potential and transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system.”<\/p>\n The firm believes the Moon will support a population of 1,000 people by 2040, with 10,000 more visiting each year.<\/p>\n It plans a second mission, tentatively scheduled for next year, involving both a lunar landing and the deployment of its own rover.<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n