The race to be the first private company to land on the Moon is still on 🌕 It appears the Japanese Hakuto-R Mission 1 by ispace failed today as communication was lost at the final stage.
The race to be the first private company to land on theAt around 5.40pm the M1 lander began its final descent into the Moon’s Atlas Crater in the northern hemisphere. Viewers tuning in to watch the landing were able to watch an animation of the spacecraft making its descent, but long after the CGI version had touched down, its real life counterpart had yet to make contact with mission control back on Earth.
Around 20 minutes after landing, ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada confirmed that communication had been lost at the final stage. ‘We have lost communication, so we have to assume we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,’ he said. ‘But engineers will continue to investigate the situation.
‘At this moment what I can say is that we’re very proud of the work we’ve achieved during this mission. We secured communications until the very end, so acquired actual flight data during landing phase – that is a great achievement for future missions‘We will keep going, and never quit in our quest.’and the former Soviet Union have successfully ‘soft-landed’ a spacecraft on the Moon – meaning a controlled descent with no significant damage.
The M1 took off from Cape Canaveral in December on board a SpaceX Falcon 9, and successfully entered lunar orbit in March, travelling around the Moon at more than 3,700mph.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Japanese gaming company suffers $30mn Credit Suisse AT1 bond hit\n\t\t\tExpert insights, analysis and smart data help you cut through the noise to spot trends,\n\t\t\trisks and opportunities.\n\t\t\n\t\tJoin over 300,000 Finance professionals who already subscribe to the FT.
Read more »
Extinction Rebellion: Climate activists stage Earth Day demonstrationSome protesters lay down for a 'die-in' to show 'humans will not survive if nothing is done about climate change'.
Read more »
Shropshire residents joined Earth Day march in LondonDozens of residents from across Shropshire joined thousands of people on the streets of London on Saturday for a Unite For Nature Rally and Biodiversity March.
Read more »
Most detailed images of Mars' moon Deimos unveiledResearchers from the UAE Space Agency say the images help challenge the long-standing theory that Mars' moons are asteroids captured by the planet's gravity.
Read more »
US private equity firm wants to take over Software AGUS private equity firm wants to take over Euro software stalwart Software AG
Read more »