Nasa finds ‘wreckage’ of lander that could have been first private spacecraft on the moon

Nasa orbiter finds unusual surface change near lunar spacecraft’s landing site

The lunar Earthrise during solar eclipse – captured by the camera of ispace’s Mission 1 lander at an altitude of about 100 km from the lunar surface (ispace)

Nasa has spotted the likely wreckage of a Japanese lunar lander that was expected to become the first privately-funded spacecraft to land and operate on the moon.

Images taken by the American space agency’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) revealed four large craters on the moon which seem to be the wreckage of Japanese company ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander.

The mission was launched on 11 December 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. The spacecraft had lost contact with flight controllers last month as it attempted to land on the moon.

While it successfully entered the moon’s orbit on 21 March, Hakuto-R lost communication with its control centre in Tokyo during the final moments of a landing attempt on 25 April 2023.

The ispace team said the following day that an anomaly had occurred and the lunar lander did not safely touch down on the moon’s surface.

Further analysis suggested that a loss of propellant in the final stage of landing may have led to the spacecraft rapidly descending and landing hard on the lunar surface.

A spokesperson with the Japanese company said in April that there was a high probability that the lander “eventually made a hard landing on the moon’s surface”.

Flying by the area, Nasa’s LRO acquired 10 images around the landing site covering a region roughly 40 by 45km.

Comparing images of this region before the ispace landing attempt, the Nasa team identified an “unusual surface change near the nominal landing site”.

The image comparisons showed at least four prominent pieces of debris and several small changes that are likely different parts of the lander’s body.

“This site will be analysed more over the coming months as LROC has the opportunity to reimage the site under various lighting and viewing geometries,” said a blog post by LRO engineer Emerson Speyerer.

LRO’s new discovery isn’t the first time the orbiter has helped spot wreckage on the moon.

In 2019, the spacecraft spotted the crash site of both Israel’s Beresheet lander as well as that of India’s Vikram lander.

Meanwhile, ispace has said it is already developing Hakuto-R Missions 2 and 3, with the data from the failed landing expected to help the upcoming missions.