Japanese Company's Moon Lander Is Presumed Lost After Going Silent

“We are very proud of the fact that we have achieved many things during this Mission 1,” he said. “We will keep going. Never quit the lunar quest.”

Hakuto-R — which takes its name from the Japanese word for a mythical white rabbit that lives on the moon — tested the technologies and procedures for commercial deliveries to the lunar surface.aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and traced a leisurely low-energy trajectory to lunar orbit., captured by the probe as it orbited the moon at an altitude of about 62 miles . The shot showed the moon’s shadow darkening a spot on the Pacific Ocean during the total solar eclipse of April 20.

Hakuto-R was programmed to descend to 54-mile-wide Atlas Crater, in the northeast quadrant of the moon’s near side, and deploy two mini-rovers for surface exploration. Other payloads would have conducted scientific experiments for government and commercial space efforts.indicated that the spacecraft was descending at a speed of 20.5 mph from an altitude of 295 feet. A persistent loss of contact would suggest that the probe was damaged or destroyed on impact.

Ispace traces its roots to the Google Lunar X Prize, which set aside $30 million in rewards for commercial moon landing efforts in 2007. The top prize

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