Hakuto-R Mission 1

The project began with engineer Andrew Barton in 2008, who sought to win the Google Lunar X Prize by landing a privately-funded rover on the Moon, and gathered an international group of professionals to create White Label Space.[3] Takeshi Hakamada would found ispace in 2010 as a Japanese branch of White Label Space.[3] Many of the professionals abandoned the project by 2013, though a group of Japanese members sought to continue with the project, which was renamed from White Label Space to Hakuto, based on a Japanese mythological white rabbit.[3][4] By 2017, ispace had secured $90 million in funding and though no teams in the Google Lunar X Prize ever launched before the 2018 deadline, the Hakuto team would continue.[3] In April 2022, iSpace was placed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, receiving a 65% increase in its share price within two weeks.[3]

The Hakuto-R lander was measured at 2.3 metres (7.5 ft) tall by 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) wide, with a total weight of approximately 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) with its payload and fuel.[5] To perform a stable landing, the lander was equipped with four landing legs and a main thruster.[5]

Hakuto-R Mission 1 was launched on 11 December 2022 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket,[6] separating from the rocket 47 minutes later at a distance around 970 kilometres (600 mi) away from Earth.[3] Inside the spacecraft were payloads from the Emirates Lunar Mission rover Rashid in a partnership with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), along with Tomy and JAXA's SORA-Q transformable lunar robot.[2][7][8] The lander also housed another payload, a music disc featuring the song ‘SORATO’ by the Japanese rock band Sakanaction, which was initially released in 2018 as a part of the Team Hakuto campaign for the Google Lunar XPRIZE.[9]

Using data collected from a previous lunar scanning mission, ispace determined that the mission would attempt a landing in the Atlas crater in the Mare Frigoris region of the Moon; three other backup locations were selected, like those in Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum, among others.[5][10] In an effort to conserve fuel, the mission used a slower path to approach the Moon, entering lunar orbit in March 2023.[11]

Selenochromatic Image (Si) of Lacus Somniorum area

After a five month travel time, the mission traveled 1,400,000 kilometres (870,000 mi), further than any privately-funded spacecraft, to attempt a lunar landing on 25 April 2023.[2][12]

As explained during the official live-stream[13] it is highly likely that, among the four possible landing locations, the site in Lacus Somniorum was chosen for this attempt, as shown by the animation based on in-real-time telemetry from the lander.[14][15][16]

Communication with Hakuto-R Mission 1 was lost during the final moments of descent to the lunar surface at 16:40 UTC (00:40 JST) on 25 April.[3] The iSpace team confirmed that the $90 million dollar spacecraft had most likely crashed during its landing on the moon. Analysis determined that a loss of propellant in the final stage of landing led to a rapid descent and hard landing on the lunar surface.[3][17], along with a software error in determining the current altitude from the ground.[18][19]

• Lunar Flashlight (launched as a rideshare)

• ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1: Landing Live Stream on YouTube