Close Menu
    What's Hot

    McQuillan and Faloon handed refereeing duties for All-Ireland SFC semi-finals

    July 3, 2025

    Woman, 70s, dies following collision involving car and truck in Meath

    July 3, 2025

    Support for Ukraine’s EU membership quest as Zelenskyy meets key European backers

    July 3, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • McQuillan and Faloon handed refereeing duties for All-Ireland SFC semi-finals
    • Woman, 70s, dies following collision involving car and truck in Meath
    • Support for Ukraine’s EU membership quest as Zelenskyy meets key European backers
    • Four men remanded in custody over €31m cocaine seizure in West Cork
    • Motorists warned after oil spill in south Donegal
    • The Obstacle Course Racing world champs are coming to Limerick
    • Chinese aircraft carrier sails into Hong Kong to boost patriotism
    • Priest speaks of sadness of meeting tragic girl’s family after overnight Inishowen tragedy
    • Demos
    • Politics
    • Money
    • Buy Now
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Local Europe NewsLocal Europe News
    Subscribe
    Thursday, July 3
    • Home
    • Features
      • Typography
      • Contact
      • View All On Demos
    • Sports

      McQuillan and Faloon handed refereeing duties for All-Ireland SFC semi-finals

      July 3, 2025

      The Obstacle Course Racing world champs are coming to Limerick

      July 3, 2025

      Liverpool star Diogo Jota dies aged 28 in car crash

      July 3, 2025

      Tour grandad Stuart McCloskey still adding strings to his bow

      July 3, 2025

      Spike Island Drift homecoming for fast and furious Shanahan

      July 3, 2025
    • Typography
    • Sports
      1. Politics
      2. Money
      3. View All

      Support for Ukraine’s EU membership quest as Zelenskyy meets key European backers

      July 3, 2025

      Motorists warned after oil spill in south Donegal

      July 3, 2025

      Chinese aircraft carrier sails into Hong Kong to boost patriotism

      July 3, 2025

      Priest speaks of sadness of meeting tragic girl’s family after overnight Inishowen tragedy

      July 3, 2025

      McQuillan and Faloon handed refereeing duties for All-Ireland SFC semi-finals

      July 3, 2025

      The Obstacle Course Racing world champs are coming to Limerick

      July 3, 2025

      Liverpool star Diogo Jota dies aged 28 in car crash

      July 3, 2025

      Tour grandad Stuart McCloskey still adding strings to his bow

      July 3, 2025
    • Buy Now
    Local Europe NewsLocal Europe News
    Home»Politics»World

    Japanese lunar lander crashes while attempting touchdown on the Moon

    LEN EditorBy LEN EditorJune 6, 2025Updated:June 6, 2025 World No Comments3 Mins Read
    Japanese lunar lander crashes while attempting touchdown on the Moon
    The Resilience lander circling the Moon (ispace, inc. via AP/PA)
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    A private lunar lander from Japan crashed while attempting a touchdown on Friday, the latest casualty in the commercial rush to the Moon.

    Tokyo-based company ispace declared the mission a failure several hours after communication was lost with the lander.

    Flight controllers scrambled to gain contact, but were met with only silence and said they were concluding the mission.

    Communications ceased less than two minutes before the spacecraft’s scheduled landing on the Moon with a mini rover. Until then, the descent from lunar orbit seemed to be going well.

    People await the update on the private lunar lander’s attempt to touch down on the Moon (Kyodo News via AP/PA)

    Takeshi Hakamada, ispace chief executive officer and founder, apologised to everyone who contributed to the mission, the second lunar strikeout for the company.

    Two years ago, the company’s first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander.

    Resilience carried a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist’s toy-size red house for placement on the Moon’s dusty surface.

    Company officials said it was too soon to know whether the same problem doomed both missions.

    “This is the second time that we were not able to land. So we really have to take it very seriously,” Mr Hakamada told reporters. He stressed the company would press ahead with more lunar missions.

    A preliminary analysis indicates the laser system for measuring the altitude did not work as planned and the lander descended too fast, officials said.

    “Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface,” the company said in a written statement.

    Long the province of governments, the Moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than successes along the way.

    Takeshi Hakamada apologised for the mission’s failure (Kyodo News via AP/PA)

    Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month.

    It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which reached the Moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March.

    Another US company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the Moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the south pole and was declared dead within hours.

    Resilience was targeting the top of the Moon, a less treacherous place than the shadowy bottom.

    The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side’s northern tier.

    Plans had called for the 7.5ft Resilience to beam back pictures within hours and for the lander to lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface this weekend.

    Made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace’s European-built rover — named Tenacious — sported a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for Nasa.

    The rover was going to stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch per second.

    News Source : Irish Examiner

    attempting crashes Japanese lander lunar Moon touchdown
    LEN Editor
    • Website

    Keep Reading

    Support for Ukraine’s EU membership quest as Zelenskyy meets key European backers

    Chinese aircraft carrier sails into Hong Kong to boost patriotism

    Rachel Reeves gets Keir Starmer’s backing after tears in the Commons

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail after mixed verdict clears him of some charges

    Israeli military used 500lb bomb in strike on Gaza cafe, fragments reveal

    Europe’s heatwave moves east as row erupts in France over air conditioning

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Editors Picks

    Arena presenter Seán Rocks picks his touchstones

    June 23, 2025

    Music legend Brush Shiels picks his touchstones 

    June 2, 2025
    Latest Posts

    Subscribe to News

    Get the latest sports news from NewsSite about world, sports and politics.

    Advertisement
    Demo
    Facebook X (Twitter) Pinterest Vimeo WhatsApp TikTok Instagram

    News

    • World
    • US Politics
    • EU Politics
    • Business
    • Opinions
    • Connections
    • Science

    Company

    • Information
    • Advertising
    • Classified Ads
    • Contact Info
    • Do Not Sell Data
    • GDPR Policy
    • Media Kits

    Services

    • Subscriptions
    • Customer Support
    • Bulk Packages
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored News
    • Work With Us

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    © 2025 Local Europe News
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.