Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown
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May 7, 2025
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Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown
by Marcia Dunn
This photo provided by ispace in January 2025 shows the Resilience lunar lander. Credit: ispace via AP, File
A private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with just another month to go before it attempts a touchdown.
Tokyo-based ispace said Wednesday morning its Resilience lander entered lunar orbit.
"The countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun," the company said in a statement.
SpaceX launched Resilience with U.S-based Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander in January. Firefly got there first in March, becoming the first private outfit to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Another American company, Intuitive Machines, landed a spacecraft on the moon a few days later, but it ended up sideways in a crater.
This photo provided by ispace in January 2025 shows the company's Micro Rover. Credit: ispace via AP, File
Now it's ispace's turn. It's targeting the first week of June for Resilience's touchdown. The company's first lander crashed into the moon in 2023.
The lander holds a mini rover equipped with a scoop to gather lunar dirt for analysis as well as other experiments.
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A Japanese private lunar lander has successfully entered lunar orbit and is scheduled to attempt a touchdown in early June. The lander carries a mini rover designed to collect and analyze lunar soil, along with additional experiments. This mission follows previous private lunar landings by U.S. companies earlier in the year.
This summary was automatically generated using LLM. Full disclaimer
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