Editor’s Note: This article was revised on Friday (June 6th) at 12pm with new details from iSpace.
The privately developed Japanese Moonlander, which was carrying the first European moon rover, may have been lost during a “hard landing” after ground control abruptly lost contact with the spacecraft on Thursday (June 5).
Mission Control lost communication with the Lander, referred to as “Resilience,” while it was attempting to land on the moon at 3:17pm ET. Communication has not been restored as of Friday morning.
“As of 8am on June 6, 2025, Mission Control has concluded that the likelihood of re-establishing communication with the Lander is very low,” the Japanese company iSpace stated. Posted on X. “The mission has been officially closed.”
It is highly unlikely that either the European rover or any other payload will be deployed successfully.
Known as “Tensibility,” the rover is one of several payloads onboard Resilience and is the second Hakuto-R Lander manufactured and operated by iSpace. The spacecraft was aimed at landing in an unexplored section of the northern hemisphere of the moon, known as Mare Frigolis or “cold sea,” after spending over a month in lunar orbit.
Resilience is the third Japanese lander attempting a moon landing, following iSpace’s original Hakuto-R Lander, which crashed in April 2023. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Slim Lander (or “Moon Sniper”) also faced difficulties; it landed upside down in January 2024, but notably survived two lunar nights.
(Image credit: ESA/ISPACE)
Moon Milestones
Resilience was launched on January 15th from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as reported by Space.com. The same rocket also launched Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Lander, which successfully landed on the moon on March 2nd after taking a more direct route.
Related: “Everything has changed since Apollo”: Why is it still so challenging to land on the moon?
Resilience was set to be only the second private lunar lander to achieve a soft landing on the moon. Its primary payload, the tenacious rover, was poised to be the first European-built vehicle to traverse the lunar surface.
The rover is compact, measuring about 21 inches (54 cm) in length and weighing merely 11 pounds (5 kg). However, its most notable feature—a small red house dubbed “Moon House”—adds an extra 4 inches (10 cm) in height. This artwork, titled The First House on the Moon, was envisioned by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, who conceived the project in 1999.
“For me, Moonhouse represents a collective achievement, made possible through the contributions of many, and it bears a personal significance,” Genberg stated recently. Space.com. “It is a small, vast, empty house, symbolizing belonging, curiosity, and vulnerability.”
(Image credit: Moon House)
Other Experiments
The tenacious rover was designed to explore the cold seas for up to two weeks. However, its solar panels could fail during a “moon night,” when they cannot gather sunlight. ESA.
During this time, the rover was to perform various additional experiments, including collecting samples of lunar regolith using small scoops. NASA has already agreed to purchase these samples for $5,000. Sky News.
The Resilience Lander also carried several additional payloads, including water electrolysis experiments aimed at demonstrating the ability to generate oxygen and hydrogen from lunar water resources, an algae-based food production module to grow photosynthetic organisms as potential future food sources for lunar astronauts, and a deep space radiation probe to monitor the radiation levels experienced by the landers on the moon, as noted by Space.com.
Source: www.livescience.com