A Japanese company’s dreams of a rare private Moon landing have been put on hold after its lunar lander, Hakuto-R, likely crashed on the surface. The craft, which was launched by a SpaceX rocket in December, took five months to reach its destination. It was set to release an exploratory rover and a tennis ball-sized robot made by a toymaker. Communication was lost moments before the planned touchdown at approximately 16:40 GMT on Tuesday. Engineers are investigating what happened. The primary aim of the mission was to assess the viability of commercial launches to the lunar surface. The company’s vision is to provide commercial services for a sustained human presence on the lunar surface, such as sending up equipment for mining and producing rocket fuel. A successful landing would have represented a “step change” in commercial involvement in space exploration, according to Dr Adam Baker, director of space consultancy firm Rocket Engineering.
