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Japan’s HAKUTO-R module apparently crash-landed on Moon surface — company

Its descent speed rapidly increased in the final seconds of the landing sequence, and communication was lost shortly after

TOKYO, April 26. /TASS/. Japan’s HAKUTO-R is most likely to have performed a hard landing on the surface of the Moon, the project’s designer Ispace said in a statement on Wednesday.

The spacecraft was scheduled to touch down on the surface of the Moon in the early hours of Wednesday. Its descent speed rapidly increased in the final seconds of the landing sequence, and communication was lost shortly after. Ispace said it did not expect the communication to be restored.

"Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface," the company said, adding that success of the mission "is no longer achievable."

HAKUTO-R was designed by Tokyo-based company Ispace. The spacecraft, which is 2.3 meters tall, was launched to the Moon last December by the Falcon 9 carrier rocket of US company SpaceX.

In case of a successful mission, HAKUTO-R was to become the first spacecraft designed by a private company to land on the Moon. Besides, it would have made Japan the fourth country in the world to deliver its spacecraft to the Earth’s natural satellite, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China.

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