by TYLER DURDEN at zerohedge.com
Update (Wednesday):
Shares of Tokyo-based ispace tumbled after the private company said its Hakuto-R Mission lander probably crashed while on approach to land on the lunar surface.
Recall, we provided a live stream of the lunar landing on Tuesday afternoon. About 25 minutes into the planned landing, there was a communications mishap.
Well, it turns out the lander probably crashed:
“It apparently went into a freefall towards the surface as it was running out of fuel to fire up its thrusters,” Ryo Ujiie, the chief technology officer, told a news conference on Wednesday.
Shares of ispace trading in Tokyo crashed 20% on the news.
“It was probably overbought going into this,” said Kirk Boodry, an analyst at Astris Advisory in Tokyo. He said, “Now that the excitement has sort of passed, investors are going to take a harder look at what it means as a business model.”
If successful, iSpace would have achieved the first private lunar landing. This marked the second disappointment for the commercial space industry within a week, following SpaceX’s Starship’s inability to reach orbit.
* * *
Update (1305ET):
Ispace has switched to pre-recorded videos on its YouTube live stream due to a communication issue with the spacecraft as it attempted to land on the moon’s surface. The spacecraft’s current status is unknown.
“It was probably overbought going into this,” said Kirk Boodry, an analyst at Astris Advisory in Tokyo. He said, “Now that the excitement has sort of passed, investors are going to take a harder look at what it means as a business model.”
If successful, iSpace would have achieved the first private lunar landing. This marked the second disappointment for the commercial space industry within a week, following SpaceX’s Starship’s inability to reach orbit.
* * *
Update (1305ET):
Ispace has switched to pre-recorded videos on its YouTube live stream due to a communication issue with the spacecraft as it attempted to land on the moon’s surface. The spacecraft’s current status is unknown.
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