A NASA lunar probe has spotted the final resting place of a private Japanese lander that failed to land last month. The Hakuto-R lander, also carrying a small rover to the United Arab Emirates, attempted to land on the Atlas Crater on April 25. But Communication with the landing craft was lost a few minutes before the expected landing. The ispace team behind the lander later confirmed that the lander was not making safe contact with the surface.

The scene of the obvious disaster has now been revealed in the photos taken. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

On April 26, LRO took 10 images around the landing site with Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC) and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital Camera (LROC) science team began searching for the missing lander.

according to the statement Images released Tuesday, May 23 by the LROC team, show at least four visible pieces of debris and a few minor changes on the moon’s surface at 47.581 degrees north latitude and 44.094 degrees east longitude.

“The central element of the image above shows some bright pixels in the upper left corner and some dark pixels in the lower right corner. This contrasts with the nearby rocks, suggesting that it could be a small crater or different parts of the lander’s body.

“In the coming months, this site will be further analyzed as the LROC has the ability to re-image the site under different lighting and viewing geometries.”

The LRO also displayed the locations of previous failed landing attempts. 2019 launch of Israel Beresheet spacecraft .

If successful, Tokyo-based ispace’s Hakuto-R will be the first private spacecraft and the first Japanese-built vehicle to make a soft landing on the moon. Despite the setback, ispace is already working on a moon return and landing. The company is working on the second and third Moon missions, aiming to launch in 2024 and 2025, respectively.