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NASA caught private moon lander crash on camera [mashable.com]:

NASA couldn't help but do a little rubbernecking of the recent crash site where a private Japanese company recently attempted to land on the moon.

The Hakuto-R mission ended abruptly [mashable.com] on April 25, 2023, shortly after ispace lost contact with its spacecraft as it descended toward the lunar surface. A preliminary investigation indicated the lander had run out of fuel [mashable.com], according to the company, which is necessary for firing thrusters to slow down before reaching the ground.

Flying overhead, NASA [mashable.com]'s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured 10 images of the proposed landing site near the Atlas Crater that show four prominent pieces of debris and several small changes to the surface. Those features could be a small crater or parts of the lander that have scattered. The U.S. space [mashable.com] agency intends to snap more pictures over the coming months to get a better look(opens in a new tab) [nasa.gov] with different lighting conditions and angles.

(To see a before-and-after of the landing site, check out the tweet below.)

SEE ALSO: Daring private moon lander ran out of fuel before crash [mashable.com]

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) [twitter.com]

NASA has used the orbiter to take pictures of other moon crashes(opens in a new tab) [asu.edu] in the past, and it's not to bask in others' failures. The purpose is to study the impacts for insight into the moon dust. When spacecraft land on the moon, the spray of dust and soil damages anything that can be sandblasted. Anticipating a future filled with moon landings [mashable.com], scientists want to better understand the erosion and impacts they cause and learn how to mitigate them.

Ispace invited the world to watch alongside its Tokyo-based mission control through a livestream of the nail-biting space event. Company officials said they're proud of what the mission achieved and will use the flight data during the landing phase to help them prepare for their next two lunar missions.

Mission controllers and ispace company executives appear disappointed as they lose communication with the Hakuto-R mission's moon lander.

One month since the crash, ispace will share its final results from the mission with reporters later this week.

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Though 60 years have passed since the first uncrewed moon landings, it remains daunting [mashable.com], with less than half of missions succeeding. Unlike on Earth, the moon's atmosphere is very thin, providing virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. Moreover, there is no GPS system on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot.

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