Japan Misses the Moon Again: Here's What Caused the Latest Landing Failure

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Japanese space technology company, iSpace, has confirmed that their spacecraft, which was undergoing Mission 2 SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon, failed to land on the Moon. This is the second failure after the Hakuto-R Mission on December 11, 2022, suffered the same fate.

"Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause," said the founder and Chief Executive Officer of iSpace, Takeshi Hakamada, in an official statement on Friday, June 6, 2025.

Citing the iSpace site, mission controllers determined that it was impossible to restore communication with the lander at 8:00 a.m. local time last June 6. This means that the Success 9-term for a smooth landing was not achieved.

iSpace technicians at the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, previously sent the command to execute the landing sequence at 3:13 a.m. The spacecraft then began to descend from an altitude of 100 kilometers to about 20 kilometers. The initial phase successfully ignited the main engine as planned to start deceleration.

When the landing position was nearly vertical, its telemetry was lost. At that time, no data indicating a successful landing was received. This condition persisted even though the landing schedule had passed.

Referring to the same review, the Control Center found several pieces of confirmed information, one of which was related to the delayed performance of the laser rangefinder used to measure the distance to the moon's surface. As a result, the lander could not decelerate adequately to the required speed for landing on the Moon.

"It is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface," stated iSpace.

The spacecraft, which landed roughly, is estimated to have been destroyed. The control center team briefly sent the command to ignite the engine, but communication ceased. "We will strive to restore trust by providing a report of the findings to our shareholders, payload customers, HAKUTO-R partners, government officials, and all supporters of ispace," Hakamada said.

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