Oklahoma Legislature overrides governor’s veto of tribal regalia bill

By SEAN MURPHY

AP

May 25, 2023

Amryn Tom reacts after graduating from Cedar City High School on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in Cedar City, Utah. Tom is wearing an eagle feather given to her by her mother and a cap that a family friend beaded. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Legislature on Thursday overrode Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill that would allow students to wear Native American regalia during high school and college graduations.

The state House and Senate easily cleared the two-thirds threshold needed to uphold the measure, which takes effect July 1 and had strong support from many Oklahoma-based tribes and Native American citizens.

It would allow any student at a public school, including colleges, universities and technology centers, to wear tribal regalia such as traditional garments, jewelry or other adornments during official graduation ceremonies. Weapons such as a bow and arrow, tomahawk or war hammer are specifically prohibited.

Stitt, a Cherokee Nation citizen who has feuded with many Oklahoma-based Native American tribes throughout his two terms in office, vetoed the bill earlier this month, saying at the time that the decision should be up to individual districts.

“In other words, if schools want to allow their students to wear tribal regalia at graduation, good on them,” Stitt wrote in his veto message. “But if schools prefer for their students to wear only traditional cap and gown, the Legislature shouldn’t stand in their way.”

Stitt also suggested the bill would allow other groups to “demand special favor to wear whatever they please at a formal ceremony.”

Lawmakers also overrode vetoes of several other measures, including one adding experts on Native American health to a wellness council and another allowing for the existence of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the state’s Public Broadcasting Service affiliate.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. thanked the Legislature on Thursday.

“I hope Governor Stitt hears the message that his blanket hostility to tribes is a dead end,” Hoskin said in a statement. “The majority of Oklahomans believe in respecting the rights of Native Americans and working together with the sovereign tribes who share this land.”

Kamryn Yanchick, a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, was denied the opportunity to wear a decorated cap with a beaded pattern when she graduated from her high school in 2018.

Being able to “unapologetically express yourself and take pride in your culture at a celebration without having to ask a non-Native person for permission to do so is really significant,” said Yanchick, who is now a Native American policy advocate.

A Native American former student sued Broken Arrow Public Schools and two employees earlier this month after she was forced to remove an eagle feather from her graduation cap prior to her high school commencement ceremony.

NASA didn’t publish study on snake plants providing life-saving oxygen

By ANGELO FICHERA

May 25, 2023

A snake plant is seen in Moorestown, New Jersey, on Thursday, May 25, 2023. Social media posts are sharing a false claim that NASA issued a study about the number of snake plants needed to provide life-saving oxygen in a room without airflow. (AP Photo/Angelo Fichera)

CLAIM: A NASA study found that six to eight snake plants in a room with no airflow is enough for human survival. The agency therefore recommends 15 to 18 plants for an 1,800-square-foot home.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.

 The agency did not reach those conclusions or offer such recommendations, a spokesperson confirmed. The claim may be a distortion of a1989 NASA report focused on whether indoor plants can help clean the air, not sustain human life. An expert in plant biochemistry further said six to eight snake plants, as claimed, wouldn’t produce the level of oxygen required by a human in a day.

THE FACTS: A persisting falsehood resurfaced on Facebook this week, with users sharing a video suggesting that the federal agency found that a few of the popular house plants would be enough to save a human trapped inside without airflow.

“According to NASA’s Clean Air Study, the Snake Plant is so effective in producing oxygen that if you were locked in a sealed room with no airflow (yikes!), you would be able to survive with just 6-8 plants in it,” text on the video reads. “NASA recommends 15 to 18 medium-to-large size plants for a 1,800 square-foot home for optimum air quality.”

But the agency didn’t issue such a study or guidance.

“NASA has not made these claims or recommendations,” NASA spokesperson Rob Margetta told The Associated Press in an email.

A small team at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi did publish a report more than three decades ago that looked at common household plants and their ability to remove some household toxins from sealed chambers, Margetta noted.

That 1989 report, “Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement,” was done in conjunction with a landscaping group and focused on plants’ ability to filter out contaminants in such settings.

The report did assert that plants — including snake plants, referred to in the report as a Mother-in-law’s tongue — can help improve air quality. It didn’t, however, evaluate using them to produce enough oxygen to sustain human life in precarious situations.

The “research was focused on sealed areas with limited airflow, not typical residential or commercial spaces,” Margetta added. “Since the study’s publication, its findings have often been misinterpreted or misapplied.”

Some subsequent research has cast doubt on plants’ ability to improve air quality in normal indoor environments.

And while plants use a process known as photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, they aren’t as efficient as the social media post suggests.

“The reality is that the rate at which they do these processes is much lower than what you need to actually support a human,” said Berkley Walker, an assistant professor of plant biochemistry at Michigan State University.

Using a generous and general estimate, Walker said, it would likely take leaf area the size of a one-car garage to produce enough oxygen that a human requires in one day. Even then, that’s assuming constant, ideal conditions — such as continued sunlight.

There’s no evidence that snake plants perform at a higher level than other plants, let alone one to support the theory shared online, Walker said.

Scientists are researching ways to improve plants’ efficiency to get greater returns in terms of absorbing carbon dioxide and growing food, Walker said, which would in turn result in releasing more oxygen.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

FORWARD TO THE PAST
U$ Kids could fill labor shortages, even in bars, if these lawmakers succeed

By HARM VENHUIZEN

May 25, 2023

 Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds holds a news conference on COVID-19 in Johnston, Iowa, Tuesday, May 19, 2020. As the federal government scrambles to crack down on surging child labor violations, some state lawmakers want to let children work longer hours and in more hazardous occupations. In addition to allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work unsupervised in child care centers last year, the Iowa Legislature sent a bill to Republican Gov. Reynolds earlier this month to expand the hours minors can work and allow 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol in restaurants. 

(Olivia Sun/The Des Moines Register via AP, Pool, File)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Lawmakers in several states are embracing legislation to let children work in more hazardous occupations, for more hours on school nights and in expanded roles, including serving alcohol in bars and restaurants as young as 14.

The efforts to significantly roll back labor rules are largely led by Republican lawmakers to address worker shortages and, in some cases, run afoul of federal regulations.

Child welfare advocates worry the measures represent a coordinated push to scale back hard-won protections for minors.

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“The consequences are potentially disastrous,” said Reid Maki, director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies. “You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers.”

Lawmakers proposed loosening child labor laws in at least 10 states over the past two years, according to a report published last month by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Some bills became law, while others were withdrawn or vetoed.

Legislators in Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa are actively considering relaxing child labor laws to address worker shortages, which are driving up wages and contributing to inflation. Employers have struggled to fill open positions after a spike in retirements, deaths and illnesses from COVID-19, decreases in legal immigration and other factors.


The job market is one of the tightest since World War II, with the unemployment rate at 3.4% — the lowest in 54 years.

Bringing more children into the labor market is, of course, not the only way to solve the problem. Economists point to several other strategies the country can employ to alleviate the labor crunch without asking kids to work more hours or in dangerous settings.

The most obvious is allowing more legal immigration, which is politically divisive but has been a cornerstone of the country’s ability to grow for years in the face of an aging population. Other strategies could include incentivizing older workers to delay retirement, expanding opportunities for formerly incarcerated people and making child-care more affordable, so that parents have greater flexibility to work.

In Wisconsin, lawmakers are backing a proposal to allow 14-year-olds to serve alcohol in bars and restaurants. If it passed, Wisconsin would have the lowest such limit nationwide, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The Ohio Legislature is on track to pass a bill allowing students ages 14 and 15 to work until 9 p.m. during the school year with their parents’ permission. That’s later than federal law allows, so a companion measure asks the U.S. Congress to amend its own laws.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, students that age can only work until 7 p.m. during the school year. Congress passed the law in 1938 to stop children from being exposed to dangerous conditions and abusive practices in mines, factories, farms and street trades.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law in March eliminating permits that required employers to verify a child’s age and a parent’s consent. Without work permit requirements, companies caught violating child labor laws can more easily claim ignorance.

Sanders later signed separate legislation raising civil penalties and creating criminal penalties for violating child labor laws, but advocates worry that eliminating the permit requirement makes it significantly more difficult to investigate violations.

Other measures to loosen child labor laws have been passed into law in New Jersey, New Hampshire and Iowa.

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law last year allowing teens aged 16 and 17 to work unsupervised in child care centers. The state Legislature approved a bill this month to allow teens of that age to serve alcohol in restaurants. It would also expand the hours minors can work. Reynolds, who said in April she supports more youth employment, has until June 3 to sign or veto the measure.

Republicans dropped provisions from a version of the bill allowing children aged 14 and 15 to work in dangerous fields including mining, logging and meatpacking. But it kept some provisions that the Labor Department says violate federal law, including allowing children as young as 14 to briefly work in freezers and meat coolers, and extending work hours in industrial laundries and assembly lines.

Teen workers are more likely to accept low pay and less likely to unionize or push for better working conditions, said Maki, of the Child Labor Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy network.

“There are employers that benefit from having kind of docile teen workers,” Maki said, adding that teens are easy targets for industries that rely on vulnerable populations such as immigrants and the formerly incarcerated to fill dangerous jobs.

The Department of Labor reported in February that child labor violations had increased by nearly 70% since 2018. The agency is increasing enforcement and asking Congress to allow larger fines against violators.

It fined one of the nation’s largest meatpacking sanitation contractors $1.5 million in February after investigators found the company illegally employed more than 100 children at locations in eight states. The child workers cleaned bone saws and other dangerous equipment in meatpacking plants, often using hazardous chemicals.

National business lobbyists, chambers of commerce and well-funded conservative groups are backing the state bills to increase teen participation in the workforce, including Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political network and the National Federation of Independent Business, which typically aligns with Republicans.

The conservative Opportunity Solutions Project and its parent organization, Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability, helped lawmakers in Arkansas and Missouri draft bills to roll back child labor protections, The Washington Post reported. The groups, and allied lawmakers, often say their efforts are about expanding parental rights and giving teenagers more work experience.

“There’s no reason why anyone should have to get the government’s permission to get a job,” Republican Arkansas Rep. Rebecca Burkes, who sponsored the bill to eliminate child work permits, said on the House floor. “This is simply about eliminating the bureaucracy that is required and taking away the parent’s decision about whether their child can work.”

Margaret Wurth, a children’s rights researcher with Human Rights Watch, a member of the Child Labor Coalition, described bills like the one passed in Arkansas as “attempts to undermine safe and important workplace protections and to reduce workers’ power.”

US Veterans Affairs signs new bargaining agreement with nurses union


Registered nurses demonstrate outside the California Medical Center as part of the National Nurses United national day of action last year. The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that it had signed a new bargaining agreement with the union. 

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

May 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday announced that it had signed a collective bargaining agreement with the National Nurses United union.

The agency said the agreement, also signed with the National Nurses Organizing Committee, would help it to better retain nurses, hire nurses more quickly, improve the safety environment for nurses, and add the nurses required to implement the PACT Act -- the largest expansion of Veteran health care and benefits in decades.

"Nurses are the bedrock of VA health care, saving and improving veterans' lives every day," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. "This agreement with NNOC/NNU helps us hire, support, retain, and onboard VA's incredible nurses -- which, in turn, will help us continue delivering world-class care to our nation's Veterans."

The VA has hired 6,568 registered nurses, 1,216 licensed practical nurses, and 1,768 nursing assistants in the first half of fiscal year 2023. These hirings are most in the past 20 years. The administration is expecting to hire nearly 11,000 workers for the year.

"As a result of these efforts, nursing turnover rates at VA remain far lower than in the private sector," the agency said

The agreement comes on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which VA nurses helped provide more than 332 million health care appointments to veterans, care for more than 870,000 veterans with COVID-19, and vaccinate more than 4.4 million veterans.

SNAFU
Navy report: inadequate oversight, other risks at deadly SEALs training program


U.S. Navy SEALs jump out of an airplane with the aid of parachutes as part of a training exercise. Chief Special Warfare Operator Bradley S. Cavner died Wednesday when his parachute failed deploy during one such exercise. File photo courtesy the U.S. Navy

May 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has released a report that details inadequate oversight and other risks at the deadly training program for the Navy SEALs.

The 198-page redacted report was conducted by the Naval Education and Training Command into the Basic Underwater Demolition/Sea, Air and Land program, known as BUD/S, after the February 2022 death of seaman Kyle Mullen just after completing the program's Hell Week.

Hell Week consists of brutally difficult operations in cold, wet environments with candidates getting fewer than four hours of sleep.

Only around a quarter of trainees make it through the week, producing around 250 new SEALS each year. Less than 10% of Mullen's class completed training last year with 189 having quit or been injured by the time of his death.

Admiral William Lescher, the outgoing Vice Chief of Naval Operations, ordered the investigation to be conducted by a rear admiral from outside of the SEALs in September after Mullen's death.

"The high-risk training program conducted at BUD/S is necessary to achieve the required outcome: fully combat capable special operators," Rear Admiral Peter Garvin wrote in the document.

"Efforts to mitigate the inherent risk must not be allowed to dull training effectiveness and thereby create risk to commands and sailors operating in combat environments."

That said, Garvin revealed that the investigation found "failures across multiple systems" that led to a number of candidates being at a high risk of serious injury.

"At its core, the investigation finds that relentless and continuous self-assessment and self-correction within all departments of BTC is required," Garvin added.

Garvin called the situation at the training program a "perfect storm" of converging factors that led to increased risk for Navy sailors, including instructors who pushed their classes to exhaustion and the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs among the ranks.

"Illicit [performance-enhancing drugs] use represents a significant hazard to candidate health, and is also contrary to the SEAL ethos and the Navy's core values," the report reads.

"This, as the investigation recommends, both a robust testing program to mitigate the risk to injury and an education program to build a culture of integrity and moral character must be implemented and sustained, as soon as scientifically and medically feasible, to eliminate [drug] use at BUD/S."

The investigation also found that instructors, during Mullen's class, had deviated from past practices to allow recovery time for the seamen, which left candidates "more fatigued and compromised."

During his training, Mullen was observed spitting out a bloody, brown-colored fluid and was administered oxygen before he continued training. He was later given more oxygen in a command ambulance for an hour and was later evaluated again with observed crackles in his lungs.

Nevertheless, Mullen was cleared to rest in the barracks to recover from Hell Week and further diagnostic testing was not ordered. Along with another seaman, Mullen was transported to the barracks by wheelchair as his respiratory issues worsened.

Eventually, those keeping watch over Mullen called 011 and Federal Fire Department paramedics performed CPR on him before transferring him to the nearest hospital, where he died.

The report found that at least 11 visits to medical clinics had been made in recent years for pneumonia, with another 112 BUD/Z candidates having been monitored for pneumonia or for swimming-induced pulmonary edemas.

The Navy has since made several changes to the course based on the findings in the report and reassigned eight sailors and officers for failing to perform their duties.

"While rigorous and intensely demanding, our training must be conducted with an unwavering commitment to safety and methodical precision," Rear Adm. Keith Davids, commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, said in a statement.

"Therefore, in the wake of the tragic loss of Seaman Kyle Mullen, we have taken decisive steps to improve our policies and standard operating procedures."

PRISON NATION U$A

California frees man wrongly convicted in shooting after 33 years in prison


The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office on Thursday announced that Daniel Saldana (center) was exonerated after spending 33 years in prison on a wrongful conviction related to a 1989 shooting. 

Photo by Los Angeles District Attorney's Office/Twitter

May 26 (UPI) -- California officials released a 55-year-old man from prison earlier this month after determining he was wrongly convicted in a 1989 shooting that injured two students after a high school football game.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon announced Thursday that Daniel Saldana was exonerated after serving 33 years of a 45-year prison sentence related to the shooting after his Conviction Integrity Unit found that another man sentenced in the case backed Saldana's story that he was not there.

"As prosecutors, our duty is not simply to secure convictions but to seek justice," Gascon said in a statement. "When someone is wrongfully convicted, it is a failure of our justice system and it is our responsibility to right that wrong. We owe it to the individual who was wrongfully convicted and to the public that justice is served."

Two men opened fire on six high school students who were driving in Baldwin Park, Calif., after a high school football game as the pair mistook them for gang members, Gascon's office said. Two of the students sustained non-fatal injuries.

Saldana and two others were charged with six counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting an occupied vehicle. He was a 22-year-old construction worker when he was sentenced in the shooting.

In August 2017, one of the other people sentenced disclosed that Saldana wasn't involved in the shooting at all. In February, the District Attorney's Office launched an investigation after receiving a copy of a 2017 hearing transcript.

"Not only is it a tragedy to force people into prison for a crime they did not commit, every time an injustice of this magnitude takes place, the real people responsible are still out there to commit more crimes," Gascon said.

Mike Romano, the director of Stanford University's Three Strikes Project who had been working with Saldana and his family throughout the exoneration process, called for better cross-agency cooperation to prevent others from being wrongly convicted.

"It is disappointing to know that a deputy district attorney was privy to this information over six years ago at a parole hearing but failed to bring it to light," Romano said in a statement. "But we thank the [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] for bringing this information to the district attorney's attention in February of this year."

Grubby the stowaway opossum captured after nearly 2 months in Alaska


May 26 (UPI) -- An opossum that hitched a ride to Alaska in a shipping container has been caught after nearly two months and will have a new permanent home at the Alaska Zoo, officials said.

The Homer Police Department said in a Facebook post that an officer "observed a wanted fugitive and somewhat local celebrity on the lam near Lakeside Drive and Smokey Bay."



The officer "attempted to apprehend the suspect, who then let out a little hiss and growl and bit our officer in the hand," the post said.

The "suspect," an opossum on the loose in the area since late March, was taken into custody without further incident.

The opossum, dubbed "Grubby" by city officials after first being seen on Grubstake Avenue in Homer, was turned over to the Homer Fish and Game office.

Fish and Game officials said opossums are not native to the state and raised concerns about the effect the animal could have on the local ecosystem. They had earlier announced Grubby would be euthanized, but said after the capture that the animal will now live out the rest of her life at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage.

"There's some educational benefits about invasive species, or similar species, that can be used to educate people," zoo director Pat Lampi told the Anchorage Daily News.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Credit Suisse ordered to pay $926M to former Georgia PM in fraud case

Singapore's International Commercial Court ruled Friday that Credit Suisse must pay $926 million to former Georgia Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili due to fraud by a former bank trust manager.

Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI |

May 26 (UPI) -- Singapore's International Commercial Court ruled Friday that Credit Suisse must pay $926 million to former Georgia Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili due to fraudulent activity committed by a former bank trust manager.

The total amount represents the difference between Ivanishvili's Credit Suisse holdings of a $1.1 billion trust and what that money should have earned had the fraud not existed, the court said in its ruling.

The court said Credit Suisse "had within its ranks a fraudster, Mr. Patrice Lescaudron" who was appointed as the Ivanishvili trust manager, adding that "many millions of dollars" was taken from the trust over nine years.

It found that Credit Suisse failed to act as Lescaudron perpetuated his fraudulent activity over roughly a decade.

Credit Suisse acknowledged in a Sept. 16, 2022, concession tot the court that it should have "taken reasonable steps to address the issue of unauthorized transfers from the bank accounts of Meadowsweet Assets Limited, including directly contacting Mr Ivanishvili to verify the propriety of the transfers out of Meadowsweet's bank accounts."

Credit Suisse also admitted to the court through its legal representatives Allen & Gledhill LLP, that Lescaudron would have been removed or the bank would have implemented "new investment instructions or trust assets" or moved the assets to another bank if a direct inquiry had been made.

Credit Suisse told Forbes in a statement that it intends to "vigorously pursue an appeal" because the judgment is wrong and raises very important legal issues.

Credit Suisse was sold to the Swiss bank UBS in March after a bank run took $69 billion of its assets out.

USB said earlier this month in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse would mean taking a financial hit of $17 billion

U$ Consumers are increasingly pessimistic, University of Michigan finds

Consumer optimism is on a severe decline given lingering inflationary pressures, researchers at the University of Michigan found in the final survey for May.

 File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

May 26 (UPI) -- The outlook on the U.S. economy from consumers "plummeted" amid uncertainty over the path of inflation, the University of Michigan's survey showed.

The final index of consumer sentiment for May, published Friday, showed the outlook declined by 7%, which analysts said was similar to the last time the U.S. economy approached its debt limits in 2011.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters late Friday morning that negotiations were moving in the right direction, though it may be a tough weekend of ongoing talks before the country risks defaulting on its debt obligations by Thursday.

Should the United States miss any payments, it would go into default, lead to a spike in inflation and send the global economy into a tailspin.

One outstanding issue would be work entitlements for social support programs, such as Medicaid, which could lead to burdens for lower-income families should payments decrease.

"This month, sentiment fell severely for consumers in the West and those with middle incomes," survey director Joanne Hsu said.

"The year-ahead economic outlook plummeted 17% from last month. Long-run expectations plunged by 13%, as well, indicating that consumers are concerned that any recession to come may cause lasting pain."

Inflation remains entrenched. The Commerce Department reported Friday that personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, increased by 0.4% in April, after a lackluster increase of 0.1% month-on-month to March.

Over the 12-month period ending in April, the PCE price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation, increased by 0.2% from the prior month to reach 4.4%. The Fed set a 2% target rate for annual inflation.

Analysts at the University of Michigan, however, found that pessimism was waning somewhat given that inflation is nearly half what it was last summer.

RELATED Jobless claims fall, though data skewed by fraud

The latest data from the Commerce Department showed wages improved month-on-month, meanwhile, and Hsu said most consumers expected their incomes to support their spending habits "for the time being."

Hsu said consumers in general believe inflation over the short-term could be stabilizing.

"Long-run inflation expectations inched up for the second straight month. but remained within the narrow 2.9 to 3.1% range for 21 of the last 22 months," she added.

Crash of private Japanese moon lander blamed on software, last-minute location switch


- In this photo provided by ispace, engineers and affiliates work on the flight model of the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander at the IABG Space Test Centre in Ottobrunn, Germany, in August 2022. A Tokyo company whose lunar lander slammed into the moon last month says inadequate software and a last-minute switch in the touchdown location led to the crash. Officials for the company ispace said Friday, May 26, 2023 that its spacecraft was originally supposed to land in a flat plain.

 (ispace Via AP)


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private Japanese moon lander went into free-fall while trying to land on the lunar surface last month, company officials said Friday, blaming a software issue and a last-minute switch in the touchdown location.

The spacecraft belonging to the company ispace was originally supposed to land in a flat plain. But the target was changed to a crater before December’s launch. The crater’s steep sides apparently confused the onboard software, and the 7-foot (2-meter) spacecraft went into a free-fall from less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) up, slamming into the lunar surface.

The estimated speed at impact was more than 300 feet (100 meters) per second, said the company’s chief technology officer, Ryo Ujiie.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the crash site the next day as it flew overhead, revealing a field of debris as well as lunar soil hurled aside by the impact.

Computer simulations done in advance of the landing attempt did not incorporate the terrain of the new landing site, Ujiie said.

CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada said the company is still on track to attempt another moon landing in 2024, and that all the lessons learned will be incorporated into the next try. A third landing attempt is planned for 2025.

If successful, ispace would have been the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon. Only three governments have achieved that: Russia, the United States and China. An Israeli nonprofit tried in 2019, but its attempt also ended in a crash landing.

Named Hakuto, Japanese for white rabbit, the spacecraft and its experiments were insured, according to Hakamada. The United Arab Emirates had a mini lunar rover on board that was lost in the crash.

Two U.S. companies have lunar landers awaiting launch later this year from Cape Canaveral, in partnership with NASA.