Japan's Hakuto-R Mission 1 crashes during attempted moon landing

ispace lost contact with its lander after it unexpectedly accelerated

Moon Japan UAE ispace engineers and affiliates work on the flight model of the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander at the IABG Space Test Centre in Ottobrunn, Germany, in August 2022 | via AP

Japan's privately-owned space exploration company, ispace Inc, has announced that its attempt to make the first private moon landing has failed. The company lost contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lander after it unexpectedly accelerated and probably crashed on the lunar surface. The 7-foot lander carried a mini lunar rover for the United Arab Emirates and a robot from Japan designed to roll around in the moon dust.

The mission began last December when ispace launched its Hakuto-R lander from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The lander embarked on a three-month-long journey to reach lunar orbit before it was supposed to touch down on the surface of the Moon on Tuesday, 26th April. The lander was about to fire its main engine when it dropped out of lunar orbit, leading to a loss of communication with the lander. The startup company believes that the lander may have gone into a free fall towards the surface as it ran out of fuel to fire up its thrusters.

Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie said that it was possible that as the lander approached the moon, its altitude measurement system had miscalculated the distance to the surface. Overall, the journey took the lander about 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) through space. Touchdown was expected to occur on Tuesday at 12:40 p.m. ET, which is Wednesday at 1:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time. (10:10 am IST)

The Hakuto-R carried two lunar rovers: a four-wheeled one from the United Arab Emirates and a Star Wars-esque mini rover made by Sony and Japanese toy company Tomy. While Japan’s own national space agencies have yet to attempt a Moon landing, their first lunar mission took place in 1990, when the Hiten spacecraft looped around the Moon while capturing data on cosmic dust. The country’s set to make another attempt at planting a spacecraft on the Moon intact with the launch of the heavily-delayed Smart Lander for Investigating Moon later this year.

Moon Japan UAE Takeshi Hakamada, center, founder and CEO of ispace, and his team staff gather for photo session after livestream of HAKUTO-R private lunar exploration program on screen at the lunar landing event | AP

The failed mission marks the second setback for commercial space development in a week after SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded spectacularly minutes after soaring off its launch pad. Japan's top government spokesperson, Hirokazu Matsuno, said while it was sad that the mission did not succeed, the country wants ispace to "keep trying" as its efforts were significant to the development of a domestic space industry. Japan, which has set itself a goal of sending Japanese astronauts to the moon by the late 2020s, has had some recent setbacks. The national space agency last month had to destroy its new medium-lift H3 rocket upon reaching space after its second-stage engine failed to ignite.

Despite the setback, the company's efforts are still significant to the development of a domestic space industry, and it has received support from the Japanese government to keep trying. 

Ispace's CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, said that their engineers continue to investigate the situation. The failure of the mission highlights the challenges and risks associated with space exploration, but it is also a reminder that many private companies are investing in space exploration and developing new technologies that could be critical to the success of future space mission.