The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has published a statement on the Emirates Lunar Exploration Project (Rashid Explorer), stressing that after iSpace announced that the landing of the Hakuto R was unsuccessful, “we commend the great efforts made by the mission partner iSpace, which spared no effort to achieve a successful landing on the moon.”
“MBRSC has successfully achieved the goal of designing and developing the explorer. Launching it into lunar orbit is in itself a very significant achievement, although Rashid and the other payloads on board have not achieved their missions on the planned path.”
It thanked the CNES-France for their scientific and technical contribution throughout the mission and appreciated the contributions of all our local and international partners.
iSpace said in a statement Wednesday that there was a “high probability that the spacecraft made a hard landing on the surface of the moon”, noting that its engineers were trying to understand the reasons for the failure.
Read: UAE’s Rashid Rover takes one step closer to the Moon
The startup had earlier announced that it had lost contact with the vehicle on time for its landing.
The Hakoto-R spacecraft, which has been in lunar orbit for a month about 100 kilometers above its surface, began its landing attempt through a fully automated operation.
Everything appeared to be going as scheduled, but after the scheduled landing date, around 16.40 GMT on Tuesday, the company’s ground teams tried in vain to re-establish contact with the company for about ten minutes.
The company’s president and founder Takeshi Hakamada said: “While we don’t think a landing is possible this time, we believe that this task was of great importance, as it allowed us to gain a lot of data and experience.”
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