NASA gives up on tiny Lunar Flashlight probe's troubled moon ice mission

a rectangular satellite with four solar panels floats in space above the moon

NASA has given up on the planned moon mission of its tiny Lunar Flashlight cubesat, which aimed to hunt for water ice in shadowy craters near the moon's south pole.

The briefcase-sized Lunar Flashlight launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last December. It was a ride-along payload on a mission whose chief aim was to send the private Japanese company ispace's robotic Hakuto-R lander toward the moon.