Dubai, UAE — The UAE-made Rashid Rover aboard the Hakuto Mission 1 Lunar lander was nearing its destination on the Moon when the team on the ground lost contact with the spacecraft.
The plan was for the lunar lander to touch down at 8:40 PM UAE time, but according to ispace, the Japan-based company that operated the mission, they were unable to verify the lander’s success.
The communication blackout occurred during the final 33 feet (10 meters) of descent, with the lander travelling at around 16 mph (25 kph).
The mission control team is still trying to locate and confirm the status of the lander.
ispace updated that they have lost communication with the HAKUTO-R lander and have not been able to confirm a successful landing, said Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC).
Their engineers are continuing to investigate the situation and will update once they finish investigation, MBRSC added.
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.
— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) April 25, 2023
The UAE-built rover was expected to explore the characteristics of lunar soil, the petrography and geology of the Moon, dust movement, surface plasma conditions and the Moon’s photoelectron sheath.
UAE would have become the first Arab country and only the fourth country in the world to land on the Moon — after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China.
The UAE announced in September 2020 that it planned to launch the “Rashid” rover by 2024. The Emirates is a newcomer to the world of space exploration but is quickly making its mark.
In September 2019, the country sent the first Emirati into space as part of a three-member crew that blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan for an eight-day mission.
Then in February, its “Hope” probe successfully entered Mars’ orbit on a journey to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
Rashid Rover completed nearly four-and-a-half months in space, travelling more than 1.34 million km, according to MBRSC. It had lifted off on 11 Dec 2022 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.