Japan loses contact with Hakuto-R module set to land on the Moon

The Hakuto-R module of the Japanese company ispace, which was supposed to make the first commercial landing on the Moon yesterday, most likely made a hard landing, as a result of which the connection with the device was lost.

The company said that the Hakuto-R module was supposed to land on the surface of the Moon at around 01:40 Japan time (at 20:40 on April 25, Yerevan time). As of 08:00 Japan time (03:00 Yerevan time) on April 26, communication between the mission control center and the module was lost, although it should have been even after landing on the Moon.

Specialists from the Mission Control Center confirmed that no data was received after the planned landing time, which would prove that the module landed on the surface of the Moon.

"ispace engineers were monitoring the fuel level as it approached the low limit, and then the module's speed began to increase dramatically. After that there was a loss of connection. On the basis of these data, it was determined that with a high probability the module eventually made a hard landing on the surface of the Moon," ispace said in a statement.

The company intends to improve technological readiness for further missions in 2024 and 2025. Takeshi Hakamada, the founder of ispace, said that they were able to collect a huge amount of data and gain important experience.

The Japanese Hakuto-R module, which was supposed to carry the Arab Rashid rover to the Moon, was launched to the Moon in December 2022 using the Falcon 9 rocket of the American company SpaceX. Japan planned to become the fourth country in the world, which would be able to successfully land a device on the Moon, after the USSR, USA and China.