Japanese Private Lunar Lander Launches... "Aiming for World's First Lunar Resource Trade"

Attempt Scheduled for Lunar Surface Landing in Late April Next Year

IceSpace's lunar rover Photo from IceSpace official website screenshot

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The Japanese private space company 'ispace' launched its independently developed lunar lander on the 11th from the U.S. Space Force base at Cape Canaveral, Florida. If the flight is successful, it will mark the first lunar landing by a private company.

According to Japanese media such as Mainichi Shimbun, the SpaceX rocket carrying ispace's 'Hakuto-R' Mission 1 lander was launched at 4:38 PM (2:38 AM Eastern Time) on the same day. The lunar lander also carried the United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s 10 kg ultra-small exploration robot 'Rashid' and a ball-shaped transforming robot jointly developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and toy manufacturer Tomy.

After 47 minutes from launch, the lunar lander will separate from the rocket and fly toward the Moon, which is 380,000 km away from Earth. It is scheduled to attempt landing on the lunar surface at the end of April next year, about five months later. The targeted landing site is an area on the Moon's surface known as the "Sea of Ice." The exploration robots will land there and transmit photos and videos back to Earth.

If the flight is successfully completed, Japan will be recorded as the fourth country to land on the Moon after the former Soviet Union, the United States, and China. It will also be the world's first lunar landing by a private entity.

ispace aims to hand over soil samples collected by the lander on the Moon to NASA and achieve the world's first lunar resource transaction. Originally, ispace's lunar lander was scheduled to launch on the 28th of last month, but the schedule was postponed several times due to additional inspections and other reasons.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.