The Agency determined at 14:00 hours, local time, that the lander failed to maintain transmissions from Earth to correct the probe’s trajectory and position, maneuvers necessary to complete the Moon landing.

Although Omotenashi’s objective was not achieved, JAXA reported that while it is flying, recovery operations will continue to perform radiation measurements outside the Earth’s magnetosphere.

It also stated that the director of the Space Science Program at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science will lead a response team, which was established on Tuesday.

The team plans to investigate the cause of the problem and compile knowledge to enrich the nanosatellite development program.

Omotenashi was launched on November 16 by the US Space Launch System rocket and separated smoothly.

jg/iff/lam/lcp