Tokyo The first moon landing by a private company initially seems to go smoothly. On large screens, the landing module M1 of the Japanese company Ispace touches down on the lunar surface at 1.40 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning. But instead of thunderous applause, there is tense silence at the landing party in Tokyo. The images are just pre-produced computer graphics of the historical event. There are no live images of the actual landing. The moderator explains: “We first need confirmation from the situation center that the landing was really successful.” But the lunar module does not answer.
For more than 20 minutes, the engineers in the control center try to reestablish communication with the probe. Then the Tokyo Ispace employees stand in front of a model of the lunar module that the German plant manufacturer IABG assembled in Ottobrunn. Company founder Takeshi Hakamada explains the problem. His team received data from M1 until shortly before landing. But then the connection broke, “so that we cannot confirm whether the landing was successful”.
A few hours later there is certainty. Shortly before landing, the spacecraft’s speed increased, Ispace said in a press release. “Based on this, we determined that there was a high probability that the lander made a hard landing on the lunar surface.”
This should not change anything about the judgment of founder Hakamada. The mere fact that flight data was collected right up to the end was a “very significant success,” he said at the event. Because Hakamada wants to make Ispace the first commercial lunar transport service in the world. As a logistics service provider, he hopes to be able to benefit from the global race to the moon by large states and corporations.
Why Ispace Founder Hakamada sees the mission as a success
In the meantime, not only the USA, Europe, Russia and China are pushing towards the moon, but also a number of other countries – including Japan. That means many flights and the need for experienced lunar travelers, according to Hakamada’s calculations. And the maiden flight of the Ispace Hakuto-R mission, which began on December 11, 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, has already reached eight out of ten milestones. Only the successful landing and the tests of the cargo brought along are missing.
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A UAE lunar rover and a robot developed by the Japanese space agency Jaxa and toymaker Tomy are set to land on the moon. In addition, a solid-state battery from a Japanese company is to be tested. The coming hours or days will show whether these projects have to be written off.
But even a failed landing would not break Hakamada’s drive into space. “As I’ve said many times before, it’s a technical development mission,” he explains. In aerospace, failure is the basis for success. Both Japan’s new H3 space rocket and SpaceX’s Mars spacecraft recently botched their launches.
Ispace now wants to use the experience and data from the first mission to improve ongoing missions, says CFO Jumpei Nozaki. “This is very important” – for a quick feedback and the development of the next two trips.
Further moon missions are already planned
Planned for 2024, the M2 lander will be built in Europe with partner Ariane, the M3 in the US. It is said to have two communication satellites on board in 2025 so that Ispace can land on the far side of the moon, from where the probe would not be able to communicate with Earth without relay satellites.
It remains to be seen whether Ispace’s investors are as long-term thinking as the management. Although the Japanese have promised them losses for the foreseeable future, the share price has skyrocketed since the IPO in mid-April. On Tuesday, the stock closed at 1,990 yen, about eight times the issue price.
The failure could now cool the enthusiasm for the young space company. On the other hand, Ispace still has one trump card: its worldwide network of contacts. Right from the start, Hakamada put together an international team in order to be able to offer itself as a supplier and tap into funding pots worldwide.
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The start is promising: The heads of the European cooperation partners, the space agency Esa and the rocket manufacturer Ariane send greetings to the landing party in Tokyo via video message. In the USA, the Draper Laboratory, a non-profit developer of space technology, is involved as a technology partner. NASA will be onboard the M3 by 2025.
There is also no lack of money for the time being. The company has collected more than 300 million dollars, says CFO Nozaki – enough for the missions that are still planned. Then he repeats an appeal that Hakamada uses again and again: “Never give up striving for the moon”.
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