Failed: the first private lunar module was lost during landing

On the evening of April 25, the Hakuto-R lunar lander, owned by Japanese startup ispace, is set to land on the moon's surface. However, with the decrease in communication with him disappeared. Company engineers stated probable loss of the device - it almost certainly crashed.

This failure was the sad end to a very ambitious mission - a first for a private Japanese space company. Not only the apparatus itself was lost, but also a number of valuable cargoes of partners who intended to conduct a number of studies on the Moon.

So, the Japanese space agency JAXA intended to test a two-wheeled transformable lunar robot - a small sphere with cameras for observing the surface. Data from the device was to be used to develop a pressurized crewed rover that would allow astronauts to navigate the lunar surface during a future mission.

Also on board was a 10-kilogram Rashid rover from the UAE Space Centre. It was the first Arab-made lunar lander launched into space. He was supposed to study the properties of the lunar soil and the geology of the moon.

The Hakuto-R mission launched on December 11, 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. March 21 module came out into satellite orbit, and shortly before trying to land on the moon, the ship made incredible photo Earth rising over the moon.

Startup ispace aims to be the first commercial company to safely land an unmanned module on the moon. The company noted that they will continue to work in this direction.