A private lunar lander from Japan apparently crashed while attempting a touchdown Friday, the latest casualty in the commercial rush to the moon.

The Tokyo-based company ispace confirmed the mission as a failure several hours after communication was lost with the lander. Flight controllers scrambled to gain contact, but were met with only silence and said they were concluding the mission.

Communications ceased less than two minutes before the spacecraft’s scheduled landing on the moon with a mini rover. Until then, the descent from lunar orbit seemed to be going well.

CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada said he was sorry and apologized to everyone who contributed to the mission. "We have to take seriously what happened," he said.

It was ispace’s second lunar strikeout.

The encore came tw

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