A software glitch and a change in destination combined to cause ispace’s commercial HAKUTO-R lunar lander to crash into the Moon last month as it attempted a soft landing on the surface on April 26, according to new details shared by the company on Thursday (May 26).

Updated on March 25 at 5:27 p.m. PDT

ispace attempt to become the first private company to land on the moon apparently fell short on Tuesday as controllers lost contact with the HAKUTO-R M1 lander during the final moments of descent.

ispace will webcast its attempt to become the first private company to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface today.

In two weeks, ispace will attempt to boldly go where no private company has landed before: the surface of the moon. The Japanese exploration company has set April 25, 2023, as the earliest landing date for its HAKUTO-R spacecraft.

Lunar exploration company ispace has announced it will be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 12, which is the 62nd anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

This is turning out to be a particularly busy year for flights to the moon, with commercial companies and universities taking leading roles. Let’s look at the status of spacecraft that are at, headed for, or being prepared for launch to our nearest celestial neighbor.

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Aug. 9, 2022 (Sierra Space PR) — Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company at the forefront of creating and building the future of space transportation and infrastructure for low-Earth orbit (LEO) commercialization, today announced the company has started the delivery of its proprietary, patented Surface Mount Technology (SMT) solar power systems.

ispace U.S.’s SERIES-2 Lander Will Deploy Two Communications Relay Satellitesto Support Far Side Landing

TOKYO (space, inc. PR) — ispace, inc.(ispace) today announced that its subsidiary, ispace technologies U.S., inc. (ispace U.S.) joins a team, led by Draper, that has been awarded $73 million to deliver payloads including two communication relay satellites to lunar orbit as well as a suite of scientific experiments to the lunar surface.

Team Draper, which includes ispace U.S., as well as General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, and Systima Technologies, a division of Karman Space & Defense, expects to launch and begin operations on the lunar surface in 2025 in fulfillment of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order CP-12.

Launch Window Announced, Lander in Final Testing

TOKYO (ispace, inc. PR) — Today ispace, inc.(ispace), a global lunar exploration company with its headquarters in Japan and regional offices in the United States and Europe, released key updates for its Mission 1 (M1) launch window and updated progress on its lander Assembly, Integration & Testing (AIT), the company announced.

MSI’s “Lunar Insurance Plan” will cover ispace’s Mission 1 from launch to landing

TOKYO, April 21, 2022 (ispace PR) – Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd. (“MSI”), a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc.  based in Tokyo, Japan, and lunar exploration company, ispace, inc. (“ispace”), announced today that the two companies have reached an agreement for ispace to utilize MSI’s new lunar insurance to cover risks arising in the lunar business named the “Lunar Insurance Plan”. The companies recently signed the agreement in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which states the intention to finalize terms during 2022, in the months leading up to ispace’s first mission, Mission 1 (M1), which is currently planned to launch around Q4 2022* at the earliest.