First private lunar landing attempt failed, according to Japanese firm Ispace Inc.

After losing touch with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lander, the Japanese startup ispace Inc (9348.T) announced that its quest to perform the first private moon landing had failed. It came to the conclusion that the lander had likely crashed on the lunar surface. According to ispace, the lander’s speed was rapidly increasing in the final data pings just before the planned touchdown, which caused engineers at mission control in Tokyo to conclude a successful landing was not possible. A lunar landing, however, would be a challenging task for a commercial company.

India and a private Israeli enterprise have recently made unsuccessful attempts to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon, leaving only the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China to do it.