Japanese company: 'High probability' lander crashed on moon

More than six hours after communication ceased, the Tokyo company ispace finally confirmed what everyone had suspected, saying there was"a high probability" that the lander had slammed into theIt was a disappointing setback for ispace, which after a 4 1/2-month mission had been on the verge of doing what only three countries have done: successfully land a spacecraft on the moon.

"If space is hard, landing is harder," tweeted Laurie Leshin, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory."I know from personal experience how awful this feels."The 7-foot Japanese lander carried a minifor the United Arab Emirates and a toylike robot from Japan designed to roll around in the moon dust for about 10 days. That was also the expected length of the full mission.

Founded in 2010, ispace hopes to start turning a profit as a one-way taxi service to the moon for other businesses and organizations. The company has already raised $300 million to cover the first three missions, according to Hakamada. This illustration provided by ispace in April 2023 depicts the Hakuto spacecraft on the surface of the moon with the Earth in the background. On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, flight controllers plan to direct the craft to descend from orbit and land on the moon's surface. Credit: ispace via AP

This time exposure photo shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a payload including two lunar rovers from Japan and the United Arab Emirates, launching from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Dec. 11, 2022. A Japanese company’s spacecraft apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon Wednesday, April 26, 2023, losing contact moments before touchdown and sending flight controllers scrambling to figure out what happened.

Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace attends livestream of HAKUTO-R private lunar exploration program on screen during the lunar landing event Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, in Tokyo. Tokyo's ispace company put its own spacecraft into orbit around the moon a month ago. Flight controllers will direct the craft, named Hakuto, Japanese for white rabbit, to descend from 60 miles high and land on Wednesday.

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