The spacecraft of a Japanese company appears to have crashed while attempting to land on the moon on Wednesday, losing contact moments before touchdown and sending flight controllers scrambling to figure out what happened. More than six hours after communication was lost, the Tokyo firm ispace confirmed what everyone had suspected, saying there was a high probability that the lander had collided with the moon. It was a setback for ispace, which had been on the verge of doing something only three countries had done: successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon after a four-and-a-half-month mission. Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and CEO of ispace, remained optimistic even after contact was lost as the lander descended the final 33 feet (10 metres) at a speed of around 16 mph (25 kph). Flight controllers in Tokyo stared at their screens as minutes passed with only silence from the moon.
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