The company has confirmed that a Japanese spacecraft crashed into the moon when trying to land the country’s first commercial moon on Thursday, June 5. This is the second failed lunar mission of Tokyo-based ISPACE, which launched the Resilient Lander on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in January.
Ispace Report. exist statement The company released this morning, and the company explained that the spacecraft’s decline was initially running smoothly. However, once it reaches an altitude of about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the moon’s surface, the mission control with the lander loses telemetry. After trying and not regaining the contact, Ispace concluded that resilience likely collapsed, landed on the moon’s surface, ending the mission.
“Given the prospect of a successful moon landing at present, our priority is to quickly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained so far and work hard to determine the cause,” Ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada said in a statement.
Based on the data currently available, the source that seems to be a failure of a laser device, which measures the distance between elasticity and the moon’s surface, ISPACE said. As a result, the lander failed to slow down enough to make a planned soft landing.
Resilience launches SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on January 15and enter According to NASA, the moon’s orbit on May 6. The 2,200-pound (1,000 kg) prism-shaped ground machine carries five payloads, including a mini-roaming vehicle called Tenacious, a water electrolytic oil experiment, an algae-based food production module and a deep space radiation monitor.
But perhaps the most interesting, or at least the most unusual – is The elasticity of cute miniature houses is designed to be built on the moon’s surface. In his websiteGenberg noted that he had been dreaming of putting a small house on the moon for 25 years. Sadly, this whimsical work of art cannot achieve its destiny.
The demise of resilience is reminiscent of Ispace’s first attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon in April 2023. Finish As the lander approaches the surface, the crash lands after the lander runs out of propellant.
ISPACE is one of several companies aiming to provide commercial payload transportation services to the moon. But so far, only Firefly Aerospace Achievement A fully successful private lunar landing. The company launched the Blue Ghost Lander on the same Falcon 9 rocket in January.
Despite two consecutive failures, ISPACE aims to launch two lunar missions in 2027. The company will launch a larger, upgraded Apex 1.0 Lander for these tasks, but it turns out to be more capable than resilience, and it remains to be seen.
“We know it’s not easy,” Ispace director and chief financial officer dumpei nozaki told reporters at a press conference a few hours after the mission failed. space.com. “But it’s hard. It has some meaning and meaning to try.”
