Japanese firm declares lunar mission a failure after crash landing | Space News

The failed mission comes two years after the Japanese start-up’s first moonshot ended in a crash landing.

A Japanese-made private lunar lander has crashed while attempting to touch down on the moon, with its makers officially declaring the mission a failure.

Tokyo-based company ispace said on Friday that its lander, named Resilience, dropped out of lunar orbit as planned and that the mission appeared to be going well.

But flight controllers lost contact with Resilience, which was carrying a…