“On June 11, NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) captured photos of the site where the ispace Mission 2 SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon (RESILIENCE) lunar lander experienced a hard landing on June 5, 2025, UTC. RESILIENCE was launched on Jan 15 on a privately funded spacecraft. LRO’s right Narrow Angle Camera (one in a suite of cameras known as LROC) captured the images featured here from about 50 miles above the surface of Mare Frigoris, a volcanic region interspersed with large-scale faults known as wrinkle ridges. The dark smudge visible above the arrow in the photo formed as the vehicle impacted the surface, kicking up regolith – the rock and dust that make up Moon ‘soil.’ The faint bright halo encircling the site resulted from low-angle regolith particles scouring the delicate surface,” said NASA in an update on Friday.
Nice of them to sugarcoat it with the “hard landing.” The fucking thing crashed, lol.