ispace, a Japanese private space agency, attempted to land a spacecraft on the moon. It lost contact with Mission Control just before the planned touchdown.

The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander was privately owned, developed, and operated by ispace. The name Hakuto means white rabbit in Japanese.

The lunar landing was targeted on the Atlas crater in the northeastern section of the moon’s near side. The area is more than 50 miles (87 kilometers) across and about 1 mile (2 kilometers) deep.

If the landing had been successful, ispace would have become the first private business to land on the moon.

Only three governments - Russia, the United States, and China - have successfully made it to the lunar surface.

In 2019, an Israeli nonprofit attempted to land on the moon, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact.

ispace moon mission

The four-month mission began on December 11, 2022, when Hakuto-R lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The lander was stowed on top of a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket.

It beamed back photos of Earth along the way before entering lunar orbit on March 21.

The 7-foot lander carried a mini lunar rover for the United Arab Emirates and a toylike robot from Japan designed to roll around in the moon dust, along with items from private customers.

Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and CEO of ispace, said a second mission is already in the works for next year. "We will keep going, never quit lunar quest," he added.

Founded in 2010, ispace hopes to start turning a profit as a one-way taxi service to the moon for other businesses and organizations. Two lunar landers built by private companies in the U.S. are scheduled to liftoff later this year. NASA is participating in the launches.

Meanwhile, the exact fate of Hakuto-R still remains uncertain. And engineers at ispace seek to establish contact or find evidence to confirm it crashed.
It is possible that the spacecraft landed but suffered a malfunction or worst case there was a system failure, and the vehicle crashed on the lunar surface.