Mystery in space: no trace of the ship that was supposed to land on the Moon

Japanese aerospace firm Ispace concluded that its Hakuto-R mission was unable to complete its landing on the lunar surface on Tuesday as planned, after

moments before reaching its destination and failing to reestablish it.

The lunar probe should have reached its destination at 4:41 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the calculations of the Japanese company, which broadcast the attempted landing on the Moon live.

If completed successfully it would have been

According to the latest data available from Ispace, updated this Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. Japanese time (8:00 p.m. Tuesday Argentine time), "communication between the probe and the mission control center was lost, although it was expected to be recovered after landing," he said. the Tokyo-based company in a statement.

The Hakuto-R ship (AFP).

where is the ship?

For this reason,

has determined that "phase 9" or the penultimate phase of the mission, that is, completing the lunar landing, could not be successfully reached.

The 10th and last phase consisted of establishing a stable communication system with the probe and its power supply with a view to guaranteeing its operability on the ground.

The firm was able to confirm that the probe was in a vertical position as it approached the lunar surface and that it made its final approach to it.

However, shortly after the scheduled time to reach its destination, "no data was received to indicate that it had made landfall," explained the company, which shortly after

The ship took this photo of the Moon before losing contact with Earth (AFP).

"Based on this information, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the probe has made

," added

, whose engineers are working on a detailed analysis of the data received to "try to clarify the details" of Hakuto-R's fate.

new attempts to come

The founder and CEO of

, Takeshi Hakamada, affirmed that although the company "does not expect to complete the lunar landing anymore", other objectives of the mission have been achieved, such as "acquiring a large amount of data and experience" to execute another mission. similar operation.

plans to carry out by

2024, consisting of

and deploying a rover.

The rover of the ship that was supposed to work on the Moon (Bloomberg).

The president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Hiroshi Yamakawa, stressed along the same lines that what happened with Hakuto-R "will serve as the foundation for the next mission."

JAXA, which collaborates with the Japanese firm, "will continue to take steps together with

and with the industry and international organizations, to contribute not only to space exploration but also to the sustainable development of human society," said Yamakawa.

The Japanese Aerospace Agency sent a similar mission to the moon in collaboration with NASA last November, although communication with it was also lost

On Earth they followed the possible descent of the ship that was lost (EFE).

The Hakuto-R lunar probe was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) last December.

Founded in 2010,

defines itself as a "global" company whose vision is to "expand the planet" and "expand the future" through concrete actions such as offering

The firm has offices in Japan, Luxembourg and the United States, and has joint projects with NASA and the European Space Agency.

EFE Agency.

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