The Hakuto-R Lander of Japan aimed to become the first private spacecraft and the first Japanese-built vehicle ever to land softly on the moon. As Ispace lost touch with Hakuto-R just as it was scheduled to land softly onto the moon’s surface on April 25, the attempt failed. Takashi Hakamada, Ispace’s founder and CEO, said during a webcast of the attempt that the company could not complete the landing on the lunar surface. Government-built probes from the US, the Soviet Union, Russia, and China will remain the only robotic explorers to have touched down successfully on Earth’s nearest neighbor, if … Continue reading Japan’s Quest for Lunar Landing Thwarted as Hakuto-R Loses Contact