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Japan ‘s ispace lunar lander Resilience crashes on descent

Communication lost minutes before scheduled landing

Mission failure marks ispace’s second crash in two years

Rover and artistic project failed to reach lunar surface

A private lunar lander from Japan crashed while attempting a touchdown Friday, the latest casualty in the commercial rush to the moon.

The Tokyo-based company ispace declared the mission a failure several hours after communication was lost with the lander. Flight controllers scrambled to gain contact, but were met with only silence and said they were concluding the mission.

Communications ceased less than two minutes before the spacecraft’s scheduled landing on the moon with a mini rover. Until then, the descent from lunar orbit seemed to be

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