A Japanese company had hoped that the second time would be the charm for putting a robotic lander on the moon.
Its first robotic spacecraft made it to lunar orbit in 2023, but crashed as it attempted to land.
Its second spacecraft launched in January and has been taking a roundabout path to the moon, entering orbit last month.
Around the scheduled time, the spacecraft performed its landing sequence, and contact was lost with the spacecraft.
During the news conference, company officials said that the rate of descent did not slow as much as expected, and the spacecraft probably made a hard landing.
A Japanese company had hoped that when it came to landing a robotic lander on the moon, the second time would be lucky. However, it looks to have failed once more.
Five hours following the 3:17 p.m. landing time. M. Thursday came and went, but on Friday morning local time, officials at Ispace’s Tokyo headquarters stated that they had been unable to contact the Resilience spacecraft and assumed it had crashed in the lunar near side’s northern hemisphere.
Among the private businesses that have surfaced in recent years with the goal of turning a profit by delivering experiments and other payloads to the moon’s surface is Ispace.
In 2023, the first robotic spacecraft reached lunar orbit, but it crashed during the landing attempt. Last month, its second spacecraft, which had been traveling in a circuitous route to the moon since its January launch, entered orbit.
Contact with the spacecraft was lost after it completed its landing sequence at the appointed time. The silent worries in the control room soon resembled the events of Ispace’s first mission.
According to company officials at the news conference, the spacecraft most likely made a hard landing because the rate of descent did not slow as much as anticipated. A possible contributing factor to the issue was the laser instrument’s slowness in measuring the height of Resilience above the surface.
