Japanese company suspects its lunar device crashed while attempting to land on the Moon

A Japanese company with high hopes of becoming one of the first private firms to land on the Moon thinks its lunar explorer crashed on the surface.

Communication was lost with Hakuto-R just moments before it was due to touch down.

Engineers are now investigating what happened following an interruption to the live feed.

Tokyo-based iSpace was aiming to release a rover and a tennis ball-sized robot developed. These devices were designed to explore the Moon’s surface and send data back to Earth.

The craft was launched by a SpaceX rocket in December, and took five months to reach its destination.

The CEO of iSpace says his company now has to assume the landing was not completed.

The CEO later adding that despite not expecting to complete the mission, the company had “fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase”.

The M1 lander appeared set to touch down after coming as close as 89 m from the lunar surface. #trending #featured