Japanese space company fails: Mondlander Resilience crashed!

Japanese space company fails: Mondlander Resilience crashed!

Vienna, Österreich - On June 6, 2025, the Japanese space company Ispace lost contact with its moonlander "Resilience" shortly before the planned landing. The moonlander was supposed to land in the far north of the moon in Mare Frigoris, but communication could be restored as "unlikely", which led to the termination of the mission. According to vienna.at , the control center had activated the engines to brake the landing device, and the position of the country almost reached the vertical. After the planned landing period, however, no data could be received that confirmed a successful landing.

The mission would have been the third successful moon landing of a private company, and ISPACE would have been the first company that had not been based in the USA that successfully carried out a moon landing. The moonlander "Resilience", which was brought to space with a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX from the Cape Canaveral space station in January 2025, was equipped with a mini-rover called "Tenacious". This was developed by ISPACE Europe in Luxembourg to take photos and collect material.

background of the moon landing

The history of the mission is also remarkable: ISPACE’s first moonlander was smashed on the surface of the moon in April 2023. Hakamada, the ISPACE CEO, emphasized that the operational experiences from these previous missions had been used. In addition, the Japanese space authority Jaxa achieved a soft moon landing with the probe "Slim" in January 2024.

A similar moonlander, "Blue Ghost",, on the other hand, successfully landed in the area of the Mons Latreille in the Mare Crisium in March 2025. This device was brought into space by Firefly Aerospace, which linked intuitive machines to the success of the private company, which ended up on the moon in April 2024 with her lander "Odysseus". However, "Odysseus" overturned after landing and was only able to partially carry out examinations. Thus, the path to the successful moon landing for private companies remains a major challenge.

In another context, the moonlander "Hakuto-R" of the United Arab Emirates was also the focus, which was to land on the moon on Tuesday at 6.40 p.m. Swiss time. This mission, which has now been tackled after multiple shifts, would also have presented a historical step and would have been the first private moon mission. "Hakuto" means "white hare" in Japanese, a figure from Japanese mythology that lives on the moon. The moonlander was tested in Ottobrunn near Munich and took an energy -efficient route to the moon to save fuel.

Developments in the area of the moon landings show both the progress and the challenges with which private companies are faced. Despite the setbacks, the fascination for exploring the moon remains unbroken and it remains to be seen as to what successes the next missions will bring.