The second attempt Of wing of the Japanese startup ISPACE: landing on the Lander moon Resilience It was scheduled for June 5, 2025 at 9:17 pm Italian (4:17 in Japan), but the control center has lost the communications With the vehicle in the final descent phase, about 1 minute and 20 seconds before its arrival on the lunar surface. Subsequent analyzes showed that the Lander crashed into high -speed lunar soil. If the wing had been successful, it would have been the first landing on the moon of a private Japanese lander.
For the Japanese company, specialized in space vehicles, it is therefore the second bankruptcy: in 2023, in fact, the first mission of the Hakuto-R programat the end of which the Lander was precipitate on the lunar surface after having run out of fuel. For the moment, the only ones private companies To have successfully completed a wing of American: Isepace, however, has already scheduled two new missions for 2026 and 2028.
Because the mission has failed: the probe has failed to slow down
But what happened during the lander descent phase? According to what was communicated by the company, At 3:13 on 6 June 2025 (20:13 of June 5 in Italy), the engineers of the Nihonbashi (Tokyo) control center started sending controls to Resilience to carry out landing. The Lander thus began his descent, passing from an altitude of 100 km about 20 km: As expected, the main engine then activated for the deceleration phase.
At that point, although the command center had confirmed an almost structure vertical of the Lander, the transmission of information has been lost: no data has been broadcast by Resilience, not even after the pre -established time of the Alunaggio.
The reconstruction of the data carried out by ISPA’s engineers emerged that the laser telemeter used to measure the distance between the Lander and the lunar surface has undergone some delays In the measurement of values: for this reason, the vehicle was not able to decelerate enough before the impact with the ground, thus crashed on the moon with a violent impact. According to the estimates, among other things, about fifty meters from the lunar soil the speed of the Lander would have been approximately 187 km/htoo many to guarantee a Safe landing.
Following the interruption of communications, the technicians then tried to send a Restart commandbut any attempt to restore a connection with Resilience has failed, as it has been destroyed in all likelihood.
The purpose of the mission: radiation in space and lunar regolite
Mission 2 of the program Hakuto-R had started on January 15th from Cape Canaveralin Florida, when the Lander Erta Status launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex: Resilience then followed a low energy orbit, reaching a distance of 1.1 million km from the earth and then insert yourself into the orbit of the moon on 6 May. The path, albeit longer, had been intentionally chosen for save fuel (Reason for the failure of mission 1) and test the autonomous navigation capacities of the vehicle.
The ISPA LANDER, directed tonorthern hemisphere of the moontransported a rover and some equipment to carry out experiments and collect lunar regolite samples. The load, whose estimated value is around 16 million dollars, contained in particular a electrolyser For the production of oxygen and hydrogen from simulated lunar water and some useful materials to study the effects of radiation in deep space.
The difficulties of Japan to land on the moon with private lander: the previous ones
In the event of a positive outcome, theRESILIENCE MEETING would have opened a new phase for Commercial missions of exploration of the moon, an increasingly strategic sector for the future of the Space Economy. Despite this setback, however, ISPA remains one of the most realities interesting in the panorama of private space startups. However, ISPA has already planned the third Hakuto-R mission next year, while between 2028 and 2029 the Lander of the Mission 4who will take care of seeking ice And metals in the lunar subsoil. In a press conference, the CEO of ISPA, Takeshi Hakamadasaid:
We are determined to reach the US companies that have already accomplished the company as quickly as possible.
At state level, however, the space agency Giaponese Jaxa has achieved partial success with the wing of the Lander Slim took place last year, with the Japanese country that became the fifth in the world to have reached our satellite. Unfortunately, however, the Lander who has definitively passed away after a rough descent that caused the loss of an engine.
At the moment the only private companies who have been successful with the wing are US: in February 2024 the Lander Odysseus of the Intuitive Machines company carried out the first private habit of history, off But shortly after reaching the lunar surface and sending some Images. On March 2, 2025, then, the Lunar Lander Blue Ghostdeveloped by the private company Firefly Aerospacereached with full success our satellite, landing on Mare crisis After 47 days of flight. The American probe sent some unprecedented images, immortalizing thelunar sunrise And the earth seen from the surface of the moon.
