### Japanese Lunar Lander Fails to Touch Down, Details Emerge Following Lost Contact

In a highly anticipated attempt, ispace's spacecraft Resilience aimed to become the first non-US commercial lander to successfully reach the moon's surface. Launched by the Tokyo-based company, the uncrewed lander was set to touch down on the far northern lunar region, known as Mare Frigoris, at 3:17 PM ET Thursday (4:17 AM JST Friday). However, the mission faced an uncertain fate as communication with Resilience was lost shortly after the scheduled landing time.

The absence of communication was reminiscent of ispace's previous setback in April 2023, when their Hakuto-R Mission 1 experienced similar difficulties. That mission ended with a crash due to a software error that misled the lander into believing it had already touched down while it was still in descent.

Resilience was launched on January 15 from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sharing the voyage with Blue Ghost, a lander created by Texas startup Firefly Aerospace. Blue Ghost successfully landed on the lunar surface on March 2, taking a quicker trajectory.

The apparent failure of Hakuto-R Mission 2 presents significant challenges for ispace's ambitious Venture Moon initiative, which aims to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by 2040. The company's future plans include the creation of a lunar city housing a thousand residents, potentially accommodating thousands of space tourists for shorter stays.

Takeshi Hakamada, ispace's chief executive, underscored the mission's broader implications in a prepared statement released before the attempted landing. He emphasized that the lunar landing was a crucial step in their long-term vision of connecting the moon and Earth both economically and socially. Hakamada stressed that this endeavor could contribute significantly to making life sustainable on Earth.

Had it succeeded, Resilience's mission would have deployed a small European-built moon rover named Tenacious on a two-week mission. The European Space Agency (ESA) and other partners anticipated receiving high-definition video and telemetry data from the rover.

The mission was not just about technological advances but also symbolic of the future of lunar exploration, according to Géraldine Naja, ESA's director of commercialization, industry, and competitiveness. Additionally, Tenacious was carrying a unique installation, Moonhouse, a miniature model of a Swedish-style house conceived by artist Mikael Genberg meant to represent curiosity and human vulnerability in space.

While commercial lunar landings have often been met with failure, the endeavor by ispace marks another chapter in the ongoing efforts to explore and potentially colonize the moon. The company remains optimistic, planning a future mission with NASA for 2027 to deploy a more extensive rover on the lunar surface.