A Japanese startup loses contact with its lander shortly after it lands
start Japanese ispace, which was trying to become the first private company to successfully land on the moon, has lost contact with it probe When it was scheduled to land, the company’s president said on Wednesday.
“We lost contact, so we have to keep in mind that we can’t complete a surface landing moon said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and Founder of ispace. “Our engineers will continue to analyze the situation,” he added, promising to provide more information as soon as possible.
The Hakuto-R program probe, which had been in orbit 100 kilometers above the moon for a month, had begun its descent to the lunar surface about an hour earlier. A complex maneuver that is fully automated.
Several rovers on board
Everything seemed to go as planned, but several dozen minutes of anxious waiting after the planned moment of landing, during which the company’s teams tried to re-establish contact with the rover, and the president ended up speaking on the company’s live video, announcing the bad news and emphasizing that iSpace will continue its “efforts for future missions”.
The probe, measuring 2 by 2.5 meters, was launched in December from the US base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX rocket. It carried several small lunar vehicles, including a scaled-down Japanese model developed by the Japan Space Agency, in collaboration with toy manufacturer Takara Tomy.
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