--- title: "Private Company Landing on Moon Appears to Have Failed" description: "Japanese lunar lander Hakuto-R Mission 1, developed by ispace, lost contact with mission control during today's landing attempt." date: "2023-04-25" modified: "2023-04-25" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/private-moon-landing-ispace" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "Space" tags: - "ispace" - "moon" - "private space industry" - "the digest" --- # Private Company Landing on Moon Appears to Have Failed ![Japanese lunar lander Hakuto-R Mission 1, developed by ispace, lost contact with mission control during today's landing attempt.]() *\Image: ispace\* ## Lost Comms Getting into space is hard — but landing on the Moon is even harder. Japanese lunar lander Hakuto-R Mission 1, developed by private space company ispace, attempted to touch down on the surface of the Moon today. But the planned landing time came and went, with mission control failing to reestablish communications. "We have not confirmed communication from the lander," a somber ispace founder Takeshi Hakamada said during a [live stream](). "Our engineers will continue to investigate." "We have to assume we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface," he added. "We will keep going. Never quit." https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1650909424175792137 ## Moonless The lander was slated to [become the first]() privately funded spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon. While ispace has yet to confirm the state of its lander, the company will likely join the likes of [India]() and [Israel]() in making a harder-than-expected landing. During its entirely autonomous descent, the Mission 1 lander progressively slowed its velocity while closing in on the lunar surface as scientists anxiously watched on at ispace's HQ in Tokyo. The team watched on for several tense minutes following the moment of the planned landing, while teams attempted to reestablish communication with the lander. At one point, ispace cut the feed to prerecorded PR videos to ease the tension. ## Never Quit The lander was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on December 11, and spent the next couple of months traveling to the Moon. It entered lunar orbit on April 12. It even took stunning [close-up video captures]() of the lunar surface below in the days leading up to its landing attempt. It's an unfortunate development that highlights just how difficult it is to travel to the Moon, let alone land on its surface. So far only the US, the former Soviet Union, and China have made successful lunar landings. Fortunately, ispace already has its second and third mission to the Moon lined up and is gearing up to try again. **More on the landing:** *[A Private Spacecraft Will Attempt to Land on the Moon Tomorrow]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()