Fate of HAKUTO-R Resilience Lander Unknown

Telemetry with Lander Lost Shortly Before Scheduled Landing

ispace may have suffered another setback Thursday when the HAKUTO-R Resilience Lunar Lander was potentially lost during its landing attempt Thursday.

"We haven't been able to confirm, but MCC members will continuously attempt to communicate with the lander.”
ispace team

Telemetry was lost from the lander with under two minutes to go before the scheduled landing time. After a tense half hour, the ispace commentators on the company live YouTube stream said that the mission control team had been unable to establish communications with the lander.

"We haven't been able to confirm, but MCC members will continuously attempt to communicate with the lander. And we will be reporting to you the latest state in the media interviewing that's scheduled in a few hours. So we need to never quit the lunar quest," the moderators said through a translator.

The landing site was Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold") in the Moon's northern hemisphere. It was carrying five payloads for customers, though none were associated with NASA. The mission was not part of NASA's CLPS initiative.

The result was almost exactly the same as the previous ispace attempt to land on the Moon in April, 2023. On the HAKUTO-R Mission 1, telemetry was lost with the lander just before it was scheduled to land on the lunar surface.