• Japan's ispace suffers a second lunar failure as its Resilience lander, part of the Hakuto-R Mission 2, loses contact moments before touchdown.
  • Resilience lander likely crashed on the moon, marking another setback for ispace after its 2022 mission also ended in a failed descent.

The Resilience lunar lander, a part of the Hakuto-R Mission 2, is feared to have crashed into the moon's surface today, marking the second unsuccessful lunar landing attempt for Japanese space startup ispace.

The uncrewed spacecraft, which was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 15, 2025, sought to become the first commercial lander from outside the United States to land on the moon.

Less than two minutes before the spacecraft and a miniature rover were supposed to land on the moon, communications stopped. The drop from lunar orbit appeared to be proceeding smoothly until that point.

Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and CEO, expressed regret to all those involved in the mission, which was iSpace's second lunar attempt.

“We have to take seriously what happened."

Two years after the Japanese start-up's initial attempt to reach the moon ended in a crash landing, this is the company's second unsuccessful attempt to soft-land on the moon.

The company's Hakuto-R Mission 1, which was launched in December 2022, made it to lunar orbit but crashed on its final descent when a mistake led the lander to think it was lower than it was.

After the company's first moonshot failed in a crash landing two years ago, the following lander was named "Resilience."

Resilience brought a shovel-wielding rover to collect lunar dust and a toy-sized red house made by a Swedish artist to be placed on the dirty moon.

The ispace team had selected a level region in Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, with few pebbles for the 2.3-meter (7.5-foot) Resilience lander to land on.

Although they wouldn't give a precise amount, company officials claimed that the most recent failed mission cost less than the first one, which cost over $100 million.

Only five countries have successfully made lunar landings, and Firefly Aerospace was the only company to do so commercially earlier this year.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah