On June 5, 2025, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured images of the impact site of ispace's lunar lander, Resilience, in the Moon's Mare Frigoris region. The lander, launched on January 15, 2025, by the Tokyo-based company ispace, was attempting its second lunar landing after a previous failure in 2023.
During its descent, Resilience lost communication with mission control approximately 90 seconds before the scheduled landing. Telemetry data indicated that the lander was descending faster than expected, leading to a hard landing. Initial analyses suggest that a malfunction in the laser rangefinder, which measures the distance to the lunar surface, prevented the lander from decelerating sufficiently for a soft landing.
The LRO images reveal a dark smudge at the impact site, with a faint halo caused by lunar dirt disturbed during the crash. This marks ispace's second unsuccessful lunar mission in two years. The mission was initially launched from Cape Canaveral in January.
Resilience was carrying several payloads, including "Tenacious," Europe's first lunar rover, and "The Moonhouse," an art installation by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. Despite the setback, ispace plans to continue with future missions, including a larger lander collaboration with NASA targeted for 2027.
The failure highlights the challenges faced by private companies in lunar exploration, with only a few nations and private entities achieving successful lunar landings. ispace remains committed to advancing lunar exploration and is working to address the issues encountered during this mission.