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.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will collaborate on a mission to the moon, analyze data from an Israeli-French Earth observation satellite, and launch a joint education satellite under a landmark agreement signed last week to cooperate on a range of space projects, the Israel Space Agency (ISA) announced.

The two nations will collaborate on Genesis 2, an $100 million Israeli mission to launch an orbiter to the moon and deploy landers at two different locations on the lunar surface. The mission, which is to be half funded with foreign contributions, is scheduled to launch in 2024.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 4, 2021 (SpaceIL PR) — “Beresheet2” mission of the Israeli non-profit organization SpaceIL is expected to be launched in Q4/2024. This is an historic opportunity for a scientific and educational breakthrough that will reach the young generation. SpaceIL sent out a “call for proposals” to receive proposals from organizations around the world for scientific experiments regarding the space mission of Beresheet2.

LOD, Israel (IAI PR) — President of Israel Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin today, Wednesday 9 December / 23 Kislev, hosted the launch of the Beresheet 2 project, the second Israeli spacecraft to be launched to the moon. Minister of Science and Technology Yizhar Shai, Founder of SpaceIL Kfir Damri, CEO of Space IL Shimon Sarid and CEO of IAI Boaz Levy also participated in the event.

Beresheet impact site as seen by LROC 11 days after the attempted landing. Date in lower left indicates when the image was taken. (Credits: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) — The photo above shows the landing site of the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft on a region of the Moon called Sea of Serenity, or Mare Serenitatis in Latin. On April 11, 2019, SpaceIL, a non-profit organization, attempted to land its spacecraft in this ancient volcanic field on the nearside of the Moon. After a smooth initial descent, Beresheet made a hard landing on the surface.

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YEHUD, Israel, April 17, 2019 (SpaceIL PR) — According to preliminary investigation of the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet’s landing manuever, it appears that a manual command was entered into the spacecraft’s computer. This led to a chain reaction in the spacecraft, during which the main engine switched off, which prevent it from activating further. SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) teams continue to investigate further, in order to understand the full […]

Beresheet lander (Credit: SpaceIL)

YEHUD, Israel (XPRIZE PR) — XPRIZE will recognize SpaceIL’s achievement with a $1 million Moonshot Award for its successful entry into lunar orbit and for its attempt to land on the lunar surface – both of which are “firsts” for a privately-funded entity, marking a new era in space exploration.

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YEHUD, Israel, April 12, 2019 (SpaceIL PR) — Preliminary data supplied by the engineering teams of SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IA) suggests a technical glitch in one of Beresheet’s components triggered the chain of events yesterday that caused the main engine of the spacecraft to malfunction. Without the main engine working prop3erly, it was impossible to stop Beresheet’s velocity. Beresheet overcame the issue by restarting the engine. However, by […]