NASA Discovers Evidence of Japanese Lunar Lander Crash Site

NASA has found evidence of the Japanese lunar lander's "hard landing" on the moon's surface after it crashed in April. The privately-funded spacecraft, called the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander, was launched by the company ispace in December 2022 and was meant to land in the moon's Atlas crater. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images of debris and changes in the lunar surface near the landing site. ispace plans to launch other missions to the moon to help develop a lunar economy and create infrastructure that will augment NASA's Artemis program.