Jun 06, Kathmandu - The failure of a spacecraft landing attempt on Friday has dealt a blow to the hopes of Japanese private company iSpace of making the first ‘safe landing’ on the moon.

Tokyo-based iSpace had hoped to make history by becoming the third private company to achieve a controlled landing on the lunar surface and the first outside the United States.

But “based on currently available data, the Ispace lander likely made a ‘hard landing,’” the Japanese space program (startup) said.

“The possibility of reestablishing contact with the lander is low,” Ispace said in a statement, “and therefore the decision has been made to cancel the mission.”

The failure comes exactly two years after the failure of Japan’s previous lunar mission.

The company’s unmanned flexible spacecraft began its difficult final descent. “Its main engine was successfully launched,” iSpace said on Friday.

Mission control confirmed the lander was in a “near vertical” position, but then the lander lost contact with mission control.