STORY: Japanese company said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon's surface during its lunar touchdown attempt on Friday (June 6), marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission.

Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has not been able to communicate with the spacecraft after a likely hard landing, ispace said in a statement.

The company's live-stream of the attempted landing showed Resilience's flight data was lost less than two minutes before the planned touchdown time earlier on Friday. "Given these circumstances, we assume there is a high probability that our company's lander made a hard landing on the moon," company CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters in Tokyo on Friday morning, hours after his company had hoped to celebrate a successful landing.

A room of more than 500 ispace employees, shareholders, sponsors and government officials abruptly grew silent during a public viewing event at mission partner Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in the wee hours in Tokyo.

Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the U.S. to achieve a moon landing.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: CROWD AT ISPACE MOON LANDING VIEWING EVENT / GRAPHICS SHOWING MOON LANDING DATA / SOUNDBITES FROM ISPACE CEO

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 6, 2025) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF A REPRODUCTION OF THE ISPACE RESILIENCE LANDER

2. VARIOUS OF CROWD APPLAUDING AT MOON LANDING VIEWING EVENT

3. MAN LOOKING AT SCREEN SHOWING MOON LANDING PROGRESS

4. SCREEN SHOWING MOON LANDING DATA

5. MOON LANDER TELEMETRY DATA DISAPPEARING FROM SCREEN

6. LINE ON LANDER ALTITUDE GRAPH SUDDENLY DROPPING TO ZERO METRES

TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 6, 2025) (ISPACE - For editorial use only / Must on-screen courtesy "ispace")

7. ISPACE LIVE STREAM SHOWING LANDER DATA DISAPPEARING AND ALTITUDE DROPPING

8. ISPACE EMPLOYEE AT RESILIENCE LANDER MISSION CONTROL CENTRE HOLDING HIS HANDS TOGETHER

9. INTERIOR OF MISSION CONTROL ROOM

TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 6, 2025) (REUTERS - Access all)

10. VARIOUS OF CROWD MEMBERS SILENT WITH NERVOUS EXPRESSIONS

11. CROWD WATCHING LIVE FEED FROM MISSION CONTROL ROOM ON SCREEN

12. MISSION CONTROL ROOM SHOWN ON SCREEN

13. VARIOUS OF CROWD LEAVING MOON LANDING VIEWING EVENT VENUE

TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 6, 2025) (ISPACE - For editorial use only / Must on-screen courtesy "ispace")

14. (MUTE) ISPACE EXECUTIVES WALKING ON STAGE

15. (MUTE) ISPACE EXECUTIVES TAKING SEATS

16. (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) ISPACE CEO, TAKESHI HAKAMADA, SAYING:

"As of 8 a.m. this morning (2300 GMT June 5), we anticipate that communications with the lander will not be restored and that it will not therefore be possible to complete Mission 2 milestone Success 9 to confirm a landing on the surface of the moon. It has been decided that the mission will conclude."

17. WHITE FLASH

18. (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) ISPACE CEO, TAKESHI HAKAMADA, SAYING:

"We have confirmed that the lander did not decelerate sufficiently to the speed required for the planned landing on the lunar surface. Given these circumstances, we assume there is a high probability that our company's lander made a hard landing on the moon."

19. ISPACE EXECUTIVES SEATED