Second ispace lunar lander crashes
Posted: Sat, Jun 7, 2025, 10:55 AM ET (1455 GMT)
A lunar lander by Japanese company ispace likely crashed during its landing attempt Thursday. Resilience was scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris region of the moon at 3:17 pm EDT (1917 GMT), but telemetry from the lander was lost about a minute and 45 seconds before the scheduled touchdown. That telemetry appeared to show the lander traveling at a far higher speed than planned. The company said several hours later that an issue with a laser rangefinder on the spacecraft kept the lander from slowing down in time, and thus Resilience "likely performed a hard landing." Company executives said they still needed to investigate the root cause of the failure, adding it appeared to be different from the software problem that caused ispace's first lander to crash in 2023. Resilience was carrying payloads from several Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university, as well as a rover built by ispace's European subsidiary. Shares in ispace fell nearly 30% in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday.
A lunar lander by Japanese company ispace likely crashed during its landing attempt Thursday. Resilience was scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris region of the moon at 3:17 pm EDT (1917 GMT), but telemetry from the lander was lost about a minute and 45 seconds before the scheduled touchdown. That telemetry appeared to show the lander traveling at a far higher speed than planned. The company said several hours later that an issue with a laser rangefinder on the spacecraft kept the lander from slowing down in time, and thus Resilience "likely performed a hard landing." Company executives said they still needed to investigate the root cause of the failure, adding it appeared to be different from the software problem that caused ispace's first lander to crash in 2023. Resilience was carrying payloads from several Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university, as well as a rover built by ispace's European subsidiary. Shares in ispace fell nearly 30% in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Tuesday, January 13
SpaceX successfully launches 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral
WESH-TV Orlando — 6:23 am ET (1123 GMT) Groton fuel cell company clears key test for NASA moon missions
Hartford (CT) Business Journal — 6:17 am ET (1117 GMT) Türkiye’s space tech company Plan-S expands satellite constellation to 16 with new SpaceX launch
Turkiye Today — 6:15 am ET (1115 GMT) SpaceX Sweeps Another Round of Space Force’s More Commercial-Like Launch Orders
Air and Space Forces Magazine — 6:14 am ET (1114 GMT) SpaceX Rideshare Launches Kepler’s Initial Data Relay Sats
Aviation Week — 6:14 am ET (1114 GMT) |
