Japan's private moon mission was aborted on Friday after it was presumed that the unmanned Resilience spacecraft had crashed.

Tokyo-based startup ispace had launched the mission in hopes of becoming the first private company outside the United States to achieve a controlled lunar landing.

Lunar lander crashed into moon

The Resilience spacecraft had begun its final descent, successfully firing its main engine "as planned to begin deceleration," ispace said.

Mission control reported that the craft's position was "nearly vertical," but contact was then lost.

ispace stated that the spacecraft had likely failed to decelerate sufficiently to reach the speed required for a soft lunar landing.

"Based on the currently available data... it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing. It is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored, so it has been decided to conclude the mission," ispace said in a statement.

Before signing off, the livestream announcers said, "never quit the lunar quest."

Less than two minutes before the scheduled landing, the once-celebratory gathering of 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors, and government officials fell into stunned silence as contact with the spacecraft was lost.

"Expectations for ispace will not waver," Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba posted on X.

Second failed attempt

Two years ago, another lunar mission by the company had also ended in a crash.

CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters he took the second failed attempt "seriously" and intended to use the outcome to inform future missions. He said they had a "strong will to move on, although we have to carefully analyze what happened."

Resilience carried a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary, along with five external payloads valued at a total of $16 million. The planned landing site was Mare Frigoris, a plain about 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the moon's north pole.

Lunar landings remain challenging due to the moon’s rugged terrain. To date, only five nations have successfully achieved soft lunar landings: Russia, US, China, India and Japan.

Private companies have recently entered the race to the moon, and ispace would have been the third such company to achieve it.

The mission wanted to collect two lunar soil samples and sell them to NASA for $5,000 (€4373).

In January, Resilience shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which touched down successfully in March. 

A moon landing attempt by US-based company Intuitive Machines failed in March this year. 

Edited by: Louis Oelofse