Ispace moon lander may have crashed

Tokyo-based Ispace Inc. said it could not confirm if its spacecraft successfully landed on the moon. The company’s chief executive said it assumed the landing failed.

It was poised to become the first commercial space company to place a lander on the moon intact, with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander scheduled to touch down early Wednesday morning Japan time.

On a livestream of the mission, Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Hakamada said the company lost communication with the lander.

“We have to assume we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface.” he said. “Our engineers will continue to investigate the situation and then we will update you on further information once we finish the investigation.”

Now read: SpaceX explains what went wrong with first Starship launch

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Ispace moon lander may have crashed