Japan's latest Moon landing written off as a failure after ispace probe goes dark

UPDATED Japanese firm ispace’s latest attempt to land a craft on the Moon appears to have failed, after its Hakuto-R lander, dubbed Reliance, went dark while approaching the lunar surface.

In a livestreamed event, ispace showed telemetry detailing the probe’s speed and altitude on its landing run towards the Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold). 102 seconds before scheduled touchdown, however, telemetry stopped reporting speed but did deliver an altitude of negative 233 meters (732 feet), which is clearly a glitch. You can watch the critical moments of the mission below.

Youtube Video

According to one witness in the control room, there was silence after the signal was lost, then ispace switched to prerecorded film about the spacecraft and its instruments. The company says it can't communicate with the spacecraft and promised to reveal more info at a press conference promised to take place at 0000 UTC.

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