A recent lunar landing attempt by Japanese company ispace ended in failure earlier this month when a laser navigation tool malfunctioned, causing the lander to crash into the moon.

Officials for ispace announced the news from Tokyo on tuesday, confirming that this was the second for ispace crash in two years. The lander, named Resilience, was targeting the moon’s far north in Mare Frigoris, also known as the Sea of Cold.

The crash site was photographed by NASA’s Lunar reconnaissance Orbiter last week, showing the wreckage of Resilience and its mini rover. According to company officials, the lander’s laser range finder was to blame, as it was slow to activate and failed to accurately measure the spacecraft’s distance from the lunar surface.

Resilience was descending at approximately 138 feet (42 meters) per second when contact was lost, crashing five seconds later. A previous ispace lunar lander also crashed in 2023 due to faulty software during the final descent phase.

Out of seven moon landing attempts by private organizations in recent years, only one has been wholly prosperous: Firefly aerospace’s touchdown of its Blue Ghost lander in March.Blue Ghost and Resilience were launched together in January on a SpaceX rocket from Florida.

Aside from Texas-based Firefly, only five countries have successfully landed on the moon: the Soviet Union, the U.S., china, India, and Japan. The U.S. remains the only nation to have sent astronauts to the moon during NASA’s Apollo program over fifty years ago.

ispace Plans Future missions Despite Setbacks

“We’re firmly taking the next step toward our future missions,”

Despite these setbacks, ispace is moving forward with plans for a third moon landing attempt in 2027, in collaboration with NASA, and a fourth mission is also in development. These additional tests and improvements are expected to increase development costs by as much as 1.5 billion yen (over $10 million), according to officials.

CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada emphasized that the company “has not stepped down in the face of setbacks” and is focused on regaining the trust of its customers. External experts will participate in the accident review, and ispace will work more closely with the Japanese Space Agency on technical issues.