Japanese company ispace's private lunar lander, 'Resilience,' crashed while attempting a touchdown on the moon, marking the company's second failed moon mission. Communication was lost less than two minutes before the scheduled landing. A preliminary analysis suggests the laser system for altitude measurement failed, causing the lander to descend too fast and perform a hard landing. This failure highlights the ongoing challenges in the commercial space race to the moon.
Private moon lander failed while attempting a moon touchdown
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TL;DR: Key points with love ❤️Japanese company ispace's private lunar lander, 'Resilience,' crashed while attempting a touchdown on the moon, marking the company's second failed moon mission. Communication was lost less than two minutes before the scheduled landing. A preliminary analysis suggests the laser system for altitude measurement failed, causing the lander to descend too fast and perform a hard landing. This failure highlights the ongoing challenges in the commercial space race to the moon.
Trending- 1 Two years ago: ispace's first moonshot ended in a crash landing.
- 2 January (2025): Resilience launched from Florida.
- 3 March (2025): Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost successfully landed on the moon.
- 4 Last month: Resilience entered lunar orbit.
- 5 A few days after Firefly: Intuitive Machines arrived at the moon but face-planted.
- 6 Friday (implied June 5, 2025): Resilience crashed while attempting touchdown.
- 7 By year’s end (2025): Two other U.S. companies (Blue Origin, Astrobotic Technology) are aiming for moon landings.
- 8 2024: Astrobotic’s first lunar lander missed the moon.
- 9 Next year (2026): NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon.
- 10 A year or more later (2027+): The first lunar landing by a crew in over half-century is planned (with SpaceX’s Starship).
- 11 By 2027: ispace plans to launch a bigger lander with NASA involvement.
- 12 By 2030: China has moon landing plans for its own astronauts.
- The mission was declared a failure, resulting in the loss of the Resilience lander and its payload.
- This marks ispace's second failed moon landing attempt.
- The incident underscores the high risks and challenges in the commercial space exploration sector.
- Ispace plans to continue with future lunar missions, including a larger lander by 2027 with NASA involvement.
What: A private lunar lander named 'Resilience' from the Japanese company ispace crashed while attempting to land on the moon. Communication was lost shortly before the scheduled touchdown, and the mission was declared a failure. The lander was carrying a rover and a Swedish artist's toy-size red house.
When: Friday (when the crash occurred, implied June 5, 2025), several hours after communication was lost (when mission declared failure), less than two minutes before scheduled landing (when communication ceased), two years ago (ispace's first moonshot failed), January (when Resilience launched), last month (Resilience entered lunar orbit), March (Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost landed), a few days after Firefly (Intuitive Machines arrived), by year’s end (two other U.S. companies aiming for landings), 2024 (Astrobotic’s first lander missed moon), 1969-1972 (US landed people on moon), next year (NASA expects to send four astronauts around moon), a year or more later (first lunar landing by crew in over half-century), by 2030 (China's moon landing plans).
Where: Moon (Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, target landing site), Florida (launch site), Tokyo (ispace headquarters).
Why: Preliminary analysis indicates the laser system for measuring altitude did not work as planned, causing the lander to descend too fast. This is the second failure for ispace, highlighting the technical difficulties and risks associated with private lunar missions.
How: The lander, Resilience, attempted a touchdown on the moon. Communication was lost, and it is assumed to have performed a hard landing due to a faulty altitude measurement system. The company's CEO stated they would press ahead with more lunar missions despite the setback.