Japan's Ispace Shares Crash On Lunar Lander Fail
Shares of Tokyo-based ispace tumbled after the private company said its Hakuto-R Mission lander probably crashed while on approach to land on the lunar surface.
Recall, we provided a live stream of the lunar landing on Tuesday afternoon. About 25 minutes into the planned landing, there was a communications mishap.
Well, it turns out the lander probably crashed:
"It apparently went into a freefall towards the surface as it was running out of fuel to fire up its thrusters," Ryo Ujiie, the chief technology officer, told a news conference on Wednesday.
Shares of ispace trading in Tokyo crashed 20% on the news.