Japanese private spacecraft's moon mission fails

A Japanese space company's lunar mission ended in failure on Friday, after it lost contact with its lunar lander.

Ispace said its mission control centre lost contact with its Resilience spacecraft during a landing sequence.

Controllers had determined that it was unlikely that communication with the lander would be restored, the company said in a statement.

"It has been decided to conclude the mission."

Ispace said the Resilience had descended from an altitude of about 100 kilometres to about 20 kilometres, and had successfully fired its main engine to begin deceleration.

However, it was unable to slow down enough to successfully land, the company said.

"It is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface."

Chief executive Takeshi Hakamada said the company would "strive to restore trust" by providing a full report on the incident.

"Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause," he said.

The Resilience blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in mid-January.

The company's first attempt to reach the moon, in 2023 with a different spacecraft, was also unsuccessful.