Moon landing attempt: World’s first commercial lunar lander presumed lost
Tokyo-based ispace planned to land a robotic lunar lander on the Moon as part of the Hakuto-R Mission 1
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A Japanese startup has attempted to land the first ever privately-funded spacecraft on the Moon on Tuesday, though its status remains unclear.
Tokyo-based ispace planned to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon as part of the Hakuto-R Mission 1, which launched on 11 December 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The lander had been in lunar orbit since 21 March, with the touch down expected to take place at 5.40pm BST.
A live stream of the Moon landing was broadcast on ispace’s YouTube channel at 4pm, offering people around the world to follow its progress.
Communications with the craft were lost just at the moment of the planned landing, with ispace saying that it may well have crashed into the Moon’s surface rather than land safely.
“We have to assume that we did not complete the landing,” an ispace spokesperson says. “Our engineers will continue to investigate the situation.”
Hello and welcome...
to The Independent’s live coverage of the Hakuto-R Mission 1, which will see the Japanese startup ispace attempt to be the world’s first private company to land a spacecraft safely on the Moon.
We’ll have all the latest updates from the Hakuto-R Mission 1 right here, with a live stream broadcast from 4pm BST.
All being well, the touch down will take place just over an hour and a half later. Otherwise backup dates are available if the operational status is unfavourable, with the earliest set for tomorrow.
Moon landing live: How ispace plans to land its craft
The Hakuro-R Mission 1 landing sequence has been shared by ispace.
It involves an engine thrust against its orbital direction in order to slow it down, before a short pitch-up maneuver to adjust its altitude.
The spacecraft will then perform a vertical descent to the surface of the Moon. The whole process should take approximately one hour.
Here’s how ispace officials describe the landing sequence: “The lander will perform a braking burn, firing its main propulsion system to decelerate from orbit. Utilizing a series of pre-set commands, the lander will adjust its attitude and reduce velocity in order to make a soft landing on the lunar surface.”
Moon landing live: ispace shares photos from the lander
With ispace’s lunar lander still in orbit, the startup has shared two photos taken from its onboard camera at an altitude of around 100km.
The first shows the lunar surface taken on 15 April, while the second shows a lunar earthrise during a solar eclipse. The incredible photo shows the Moon’s shadow on the Earth’s southern hemisphere on 20 April.
“The Moon hung perfectly between the Sun and Earth at this moment, casting a shadow resulting in the solar eclipse visible over Australia,” ispace notes. (You can watch that rare total eclipse right here.)
Moon landing live: Where is ispace’s craft landing?
The Hakuto-R craft is currently orbiting the Moon, but in a few hours it will attempt to touch down on the lunar surface. If successful, it will be the first ever privately-owned spacecraft to achieve the feat. But where exactly is it going to land?
Plan A is to land it in the Altlas Crater, located at the outer edge of Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Cold, today at 5.40pm BST. If this fails, there are backup dates on 26 April, 1 May and 3 May, which could potentially alter the landing site, depending on the operational status of the spacecraft.
“Careful consideration of the target site criteria included continuous sun-illumination duration and communication visibility from the Earth,” ispace said in its mission brief.
Moon landing live: T-Minus 100 minutes for the ispace mission to start
There’s just 100 minutes to go until ispace begins preparations to land.
The whole landing attempt of the Hakuto-R craft will be live streamed on the Japanese firm’s official YouTube channel, which is available just below.
There are already more than 7,000 people waiting to watch this potentially historic moment, which is similar to the level of interest generated by a major SpaceX launch.
Moon landing live: Japanese ispace mission is not the first lunar landing attempt
Japan’s ispace is not the first privately-funded venture to attempt a moon landing, but if successful it will be the first to achieve it. In 2019, Israel’s SpaceIL crashed its Beresheet lander onto the lunar surface, spilling thousands of hardy tardigrades.
You can read more about that mission here.
Moon landing live: Live stream delay
We’re still waiting on the live stream from ispace, which was meant to start 15 minutes ago. While we wait, here’s a reminder of what the Japanese company is trying to achieve with this mission.
There are 10 milestones that Mission 1 is attemtping to reach, ranging from the launch that took place last year, to delivering its customers’ payloads to the lunar surface after landing.
We’re currently up to ‘Success 9’ by the firm’s own tally, but arguably number 10 is bigger than all others that have come before it.
Moon landing live: ispace launches stream
Half an hour later than scheduled, ispace has launched its live stream of the final stages of its Hakuto-R Mission 1.
You can watch it here:
Moon landing live: Communications with lander go dark
We’re around 45 minutes away from the landing attempt. The ispace lander is currently on the other side of the Moon, so we won’t be hearing from it for another 30 minutes.
Until then, we’re hearing from figures from the company and the broader space industry in a mix of live broadcasts and pre-recorded interviews.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments