Japan’s 1st Moon Lander Suffers Communication Failure After Launch

November 18th, 2022

Awake Goy

Japan’s space agency said Thursday that communication with its moon lander Omotenashi was lost after launching from the NASA center the previous day, and that it was working to stabilize its position.
NASA on Wednesday launched its unmanned spacecraft, Artemis 1, carrying the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Omotenashi lander and Equuleus satellite.
JAXA said the two devices successfully separated from the U.S. spacecraft on the same day and confirmed the Equuleus was operating normally in space. But it could not establish communication with Omotenashi.
“Omotenashi also separated on November 16 (JST), but currently the CubeSat has not completed sun acquisition and communication is not stable,” the space agency said in a statement…. Source