Emirates Lunar Mission: Japanese firm loses contact with lander holding Rashid Rover

Emirates Lunar Mission: Japanese firm loses contact with lander holding Rashid Rover

Dubai: The Japanese company that sent a lander carrying the UAE’s Rashid Rover to the Moon lost contact with the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander post the planned landing time on Tuesday night. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai tweeted: “ispace has updated that they have lost communication with the HAKUTO-R lander and have not been able to confirm a successful landing. Their engineers are continuing to investigate the situation and will update once they finish investigation.” The mission control centre announced that it continues to investigate on the lander communication, it added. On December 11, 2022, the lander carrying the Emirati-built Moon explorer was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida, USA, beginning a journey that took the lander around 1.4 million kilometres into deep space and into the lunar orbit.