Space setback: Hakamada (centre) waiting with members of his team for news of the expected landing on the Moon by the company’s Resilience craft, in Tokyo. — AFP
The country’s hopes of achieving its first soft touchdown on the Moon by a private company were dashed when the mission was aborted after an assumed crash-landing, the startup said.
Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to make history as only the third private firm – and the first outside the United States – to achieve a controlled arrival on the lunar surface.
