A private lunar lander from Japan crashed while attempting to land on the moon Friday, marking another setback in the commercial race to explore the lunar surface. The Tokyo-based company ispace announced the mission's failure several hours after losing communication with the lander. Flight controllers made efforts to re-establish contact but were met with silence, leading them to conclude the mission.

The communication blackout occurred less than two minutes before the spacecraft was scheduled to land, carrying a mini rover. Until that point, the descent from lunar orbit appeared to be progressing smoothly. CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada expressed regret to all who contributed to the mission, which represents ispace's second unsuccessful attempt to land on the moon. Two years prior, the company’s first lunar mission also ended in a crash, prompting the name “Resilience” for this latest lander.

Resilience was designed to carry a rover equipped with a shovel for collecting lunar soil, as well as a small red house created by a Swedish artist, intended for placement on the moon's surface. Company officials stated it is too early to determine if the same issues affected both missions. "This is the second time that we were not able to land. So we really have to take it very seriously," Hakamada told reporters, emphasizing the company's commitment to future lunar missions.

Preliminary analyses suggest that the lander's laser system, which measures altitude, malfunctioned, causing it to descend too quickly. "Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface," the company stated in a written release.

The moon, once the exclusive domain of government space agencies, has become a target for private companies since 2019, though many have faced challenges. Launched in January from Florida, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month after sharing a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which successfully landed on the moon in March. Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, also reached the moon shortly after Firefly but faced its own landing failure.

Ispace aimed for a less hazardous landing site at Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Cold, a region characterized by craters and ancient lava flows. The 7.5-foot (2.3-meter) Resilience was expected to transmit images back to Earth shortly after landing and deploy its rover, named Tenacious, to explore the lunar surface. The rover, built from carbon fiber-reinforced plastic and weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), was equipped with a high-definition camera and a shovel for lunar soil collection.

Tenacious was designed to operate close to the lander, moving at a speed of less than one inch per second, with the capability to travel up to two-thirds of a mile (1 kilometer) away during its two-week mission. In addition to scientific experiments, the rover was to carry a tiny Swedish-style red cottage, dubbed the Moonhouse, for placement on the lunar surface.

Minutes before the landing attempt, Hakamada reassured stakeholders that ispace had learned from its previous failure. "Engineers did everything they possibly could" to ensure success this time, he stated. He views this mission as a steppingstone toward a larger lander planned for launch by 2027, in collaboration with NASA.

Ispace, like many private companies, faces financial constraints and cannot afford repeated failures, according to Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace’s U.S. subsidiary. While the cost of the current mission has not been disclosed, officials indicated it was less than the first mission, which exceeded $100 million.

Other U.S. companies, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology, are also targeting moon landings by the end of the year. Astrobotic’s first lunar lander failed to reach the moon in 2024, crashing back through Earth’s atmosphere.

Historically, only five countries have successfully achieved robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India, and Japan. The U.S. remains the only nation to have landed astronauts on the moon, with 12 NASA astronauts making the journey between 1969 and 1972. NASA plans to send four astronauts around the moon next year, followed by the first crewed lunar landing in over 50 years, utilizing SpaceX’s Starship for the mission. China also aims to land its astronauts on the moon by 2030.