Latest moon landing attempt 'likely to have crashed', ispace confirms
Private Japanese space company ispace has said its latest attempt to land a vessel on the moon has likely failed, two years after a separate unsuccessful attempt.
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Ispace believes the uncrewed ship “crashed into the surface of the moon” as it attempted to land.
The lander, named Resilience, lost contact with Tokyo late on Thursday night and by Friday morning, the mission had been declared a failure.
Ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada confirmed the mission’s failure at a news conference.
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Fly me to the Moon 🎵🌝
— ispace (@ispace_inc) June 4, 2025
RESILIENCE status: nominal
Distance above the Lunar surface: ca. 100 km
Current orbital phase: Low lunar orbit, traveling at ca. 5,800 km/h
RESILIENCE remains in a circular orbit as landing day approaches. This video was captured from lunar orbit by… pic.twitter.com/Ll7FCudqL5
He said: "This is the second time that we were not able to land.
“So we really have to take it very seriously.”
In a statement, the company suggested the lander crashed because its laser systems measuring the vessel’s altitude failed, causing its descent to be too fast.
"Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface," ispace said in a statement.
Resilience set off on its ill-fated journey from Florida in January and entered lunar orbit last month.
Ispace was competing with US company Firefly Aerospace, whose lander, the Blue Ghost, reached the moon faster and was able to land successfully in March.