Communication with Japanese module failed after attempted landing on the Moon

Engineers have failed to establish contact with Japan's HAKUTO-R module, also known as Resilience, after it attempted to land on the moon, developer Ispace said.

"We have not been able to establish contact with Resilience at this time, but Ispace engineers in our mission control center are continuing efforts to establish communication with the module," the official statement said.

It is unclear what happened to the module, but it appears the landing attempt was unsuccessful. During the live broadcast, about a minute and a half before the planned landing, the module's altitude dropped sharply to zero.

Ispace already tried to send its lander to the Moon in April 2023. Then, seconds before landing, while contact with the lander was still maintained, it suddenly sped up and the company reported that it would not be able to re-establish contact, resulting in the landing being deemed a failure.

HAKUTO-R was developed by the Japanese company Ispace, located in Tokyo. The height of the device is 2.3 meters. It was launched to the Moon on January 15 using the Falcon 9 launch vehicle of the American company SpaceX.

Earlier, a bacterium unknown on Earth was found on the Chinese space station.

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