Japan’s Lunar Mission Falls Silent During Descent, Crash Suspected

### Speedy summary
– Japan’s Resilience spacecraft, developed by private company ispace, likely crashed during its attempted Moon landing in the Mare Frigoris region early Friday morning.
– The mission aimed to be the first privately-built Japanese spacecraft to perform a soft lunar landing.- The spacecraft began its descent from a 100-kilometer lunar orbit and approached the surface with apparent precision until telemetry data vanished abruptly in the final phase, approximately 5 kilometers above the moon’s surface.
– A sudden loss of signal coincided with Resilience’s anticipated landing time. Ham radio operators confirmed no communication after the critical moment.
– ispace has not yet officially confirmed if the mission ended in failure or provided updates regarding telemetry anomalies.

*Japan’s Resilience spacecraft Likely Crashes on Moon. Image: X*

### Indian Opinion Analysis
The apparent failure of Japan’s Resilience spacecraft underscores both the challenges and importance of advancements in private-sector-driven space exploration globally. If confirmed as another crash,this setback serves as a reminder of how complex missions like lunar landings require extraordinary precision technology and rigorous testing standards.For India, where both government projects (like ISRO’s Chandrayaan program) and private enterprises are gaining momentum in space exploration, this incident highlights ongoing risks inherent in such ambitious pursuits. Lessons may be drawn about ensuring robust redundancy measures to address last-mile communication failures during critical descent phases-a recurring obstacle evident here.

Further developments from ispace regarding transparency on technical issues can enrich shared global knowledge about potential causes for such mishaps, benefiting India as it charts its trajectory into deeper interplanetary missions and potential collaboration opportunities within Asia-Pacific space networks.

[read More](https://www.republicworld.com/science/space/breaking-japans-resilience-spacecraft-likely-crashes-on-moon-no-update-from-livestream)