How #HAKUTO-R Mission 1 crashed onto the Moon because its software thought it was much lower than it really was: a slide from today's press conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owt2u9SJIbU, more in https://twitter.com/cosmos4u/status/1662177553300242441 and a detailled description of the findings in the press release https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4691

Just in - an LROC image showing "at least four prominent pieces of debris [of the crashed #HAKUTO-R M1 lander] and several small changes" on the lunar surface: go to http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1302 for this image taken the day after being blinked against an earlier one.

Analysis of #HAKUTO-R Spacecraft Landing on the Moon, 2023-Apr-25 (from amateur radio observations): https://amsat-dl.org/en/analysis-of-hakuto-r-spacecraft-landing-on-the-moon-2023-apr-25/ -> "The ispace HAKUTO-R M1 spacecraft mission was planned to land on Earth’s Moon in or near Atlas crater at 2023-04-25 16:40 utc. But the HAKUTO-R M1 signal ceased abruptly at 16:45:09 utc, and it was immediately clear that the spacecraft had not landed as planned. The final 88s of doppler shift profile indicated free fall, followed by a destructive landing on the Moon"

RT @IanJohnBuckley (on Twiiter) re. the official explanation of the #HAKUTO loss vs. ham radio observations: "The doppler on the radio carrier tells a story of a free fall from greater than 10km, so it’s not what I’d call close, but they were very late wrt there predicted landing time so fuel exhaustion seems a solid bet."

RT @IanJohnBuckley (on Twiiter) re. the official explanation of the #HAKUTO loss vs. ham radio observations: "he doppler on the radio carrier tells a story of a free fall from greater than 10km, so it’s not what I’d call close, but they were very late wrt there predicted landing time so fuel exhaustion seems a solid bet."

RT @IanJohnBuckley (on Twiiter) re. the official explanation of the #HAKUTO loss vs. ham radio observations: "he doppler on the radio carrier tells a story of a free fall from greater than 10km, so it’s not what I’d call close, but they were very late wrt there predicted landing time so fuel exhaustion seems a solid bet."

According to the #HAKUTO-R M1 update https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4655 "it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface" - after it had run out of fuel - and was destroyed. A lot of questions remain unanswered, though, and analysis of the received telemetry continues. Eventually a scenario must be found that also explains all the interesting effects on the radio carrier several radio hams have recorded in detail.

According to the #HAKUTO-R M1 update https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4655 "it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface" -after it ran out of fuel - and was destroyed. A lot of questions remain unanswered, though, and analysis of the received telemetry continues. Eventually a scenario must be found that also explains all the interesting effects on the radio carrier several radio hams have recorded in detail.

The loss of signal as seen in Bochum with the 20-meter dish: #HAKUTO-R fell silent abruptly at 16:45:10 UTC, including sidebands which apparently carried telemetry. It's not clear at this point whether this marked an on-board failure after a soft landing, an impact (5 minutes after the planned touch-down time?) or another failure while the spacecraft flew on a bad trajectory. Sadly no technical discussion at all on the webcast - which had been pretty good for the first hour - before it ended.

The loss of signal as seen in Bochum with the 20-meter dish: #HAKUTO-R fell silent abruptly at 16:45:10 UTC, including sidebands which apparently carried telemetry. It's not clear at this point whether this marked an on-board failure after a soft landing, an impact (5 minutes after the planned touch-down time?) or another failure while the spacecraft flew on a bad trajectory. Sadly no technical discussion at all on the webcast - which had been pretty good for the first hour - before it ended.

The mission has essentially been declared a loss by a #HAKUTO-R manager in the webcast (which has been terminated), but they got telemetry til near touchdown (or impact) and have learned a lot for future attempts. Meanwhile in Bochum analysis of the received carrier - which then fell silent, for good - continues.

Bochum - streaming on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCMqykEm84w - saw an apparent #HAKUTO-R signal for some minutes *after* the touchdown time ... but then it suddenly vanished and hasn't come back. No information at all on the webcast ...

Bochum saw an apparent #HAKUTO-R signal for some minutes after the touchdown time ... but then it suddenly vanished and hasn't come back. No information at all on the webcast ...

They haven't said it on the webcast yet - but a 20- meter dish in Bochum, Germany (a few kilometers from me) is receiving #HAKUTO-R after the end of the long lunar occultation several minutes ago: https://twitter.com/amsatdl/status/1650898229209309185

The #Hakuto-R Mission 1 landing webcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpR1UUnix3g has begun!

The utimate image of the 20 April #SolarEclipse has just been published in https://twitter.com/ispace_inc/status/1650506233575604227 - it was taken by the #HAKUTO-R Moon orbiter, looking from behind over the limb of the Moon at the full Earth with the #umbra of the Moon over Southeast Asia. Tomorrow comes the landing attempt.

The utimate image of the 20 April #solar eclipse has just been published in https://twitter.com/ispace_inc/status/1650506233575604227 - it was taken by the #HAKUTO-R Moon orbiter, looking from behind over the limb of the Moon at the full Earth with the #umbra of the Moon over Southeast Asia. Tomorrow comes the landing attempt.

The #HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander has completed all planned orbital control maneuvers, completing Success 8 of the Mission 1 Milestones: https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4611 - after a controlled burn from the lander’s main propulsion system lasting approximately 10 minutes, the maneuver was successfully completed on 13 April.

We have a landing date and time for Japan's private lunar flight #Hakuto-R Mission 1: Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at 16:40 UTC! As of April 12, 2023, the Mission 1 lander is orbiting the Moon in an elliptical orbit with an altitude of about 100 km at the perilune (periapsis) and about 2300 km at the apolune (apoapsis): https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4577 - after insertion into lunar orbit, the lander’s onboard camera successfully photographed and acquired images of the Moon as this one here.

In https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/spacex-moves-starship-to-launch-site-and-liftoff-could-be-just-days-away/ it is argued that the first launch attempt of the #STARSHIP won't come before April 10 - anyway, this month could be it. (And it should see the launches of #JUICE on the 13th and the lunar landing attempt of #Hakuto-R Mission 1 at the end of April.)