Two private lunar landers embark on a roundabout journey to the moon
Firefly Aerospace from the US and the Japanese firm ispace shared the ride with SpaceX from the Kennedy Space Centre to save money.
In a two-for-one moonshot, SpaceX has launched a pair of lunar landers for US and Japanese companies looking to jump-start business on Earth’s nearest neighbour.
The two landers rocketed away in the middle of the night from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre, the latest in a stream of private spacecraft aiming for the moon.
They shared the ride to save money but parted company an hour into the flight exactly as planned, taking separate roundabout routes for the months-long journey.
This is “take two” for the Tokyo-based ispace, whose first lander crashed into the moon two years ago.
This time, it has a rover on board with a scoop to gather up lunar dirt for study and plans to test potential food and water sources for future explorers.
Lunar newcomer, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, is flying 10 experiments for Nasa, including a vacuum to gather dirt, a drill to measure the temperature below the surface and a device that could be used by future moonwalkers to keep the sharp, abrasive particles off their spacesuits and equipment.
The rocket took off from Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida (AP)
Firefly’s Blue Ghost — named after a species of US Southeastern fireflies — should reach the moon first.
The 6ft 6in lander will attempt a touchdown in early March at Mare Crisium, a volcanic plain in the northern latitudes.
Deployment of the @ispace_inc RESILIENCE lunar lander confirmed pic.twitter.com/ep3N05MkTm
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2025
The slightly bigger ispace lander named Resilience will take four to five months to get there, targeting a touchdown in late May or early June at Mare Frigoris, even further north on the moon’s near side.
“We don’t think this is a race. Some people say ‘race to the moon’, but it’s not about the speed,” ispace’s founder Takeshi Hakamada said this week from Cape Canaveral.
Both Mr Hakamada and Firefly chief executive Jason Kim acknowledge the challenges still ahead, given the wreckage littering the lunar landscape.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander should arrive in March(AP Photo/John Raoux)
Only five countries have successfully placed spacecraft on the moon since the 1960s: the former Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.
Mr Kim said: “We’ve done everything we can on the design and the engineering.” Even so, he pinned an Irish shamrock to his jacket lapel Tuesday night for good luck.
The US remains the only nation to have landed astronauts on the lunar surface. Nasa’s Artemis programme, the successor to Apollo, aims to get astronauts back on the moon by the end of the decade.
Before that can happen, “we’re sending a lot of science and a lot of technology ahead of time to prepare for that,” Nasa’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said on the eve of launch.
The slightly bigger ispace lander named Resilience will take four to five months to get to the moon (AP Photo/John Raoux)
If they ace their respective touchdowns, both spacecraft will spend two weeks operating in constant daylight, shutting down once darkness hits.
Once lowered onto the lunar surface, ispace’s 11lbs rover will stay near the lander, traveling up to hundreds of yards in circles at a speed of less than one inch per second. The rover has its own special delivery to drop off on the lunar dust: a toy-size red house designed by a Swedish artist.
Nasa is paying 101 million dollars (£82.7 million) to Firefly for the mission and another 44 million dollars (£36 million) for the experiments.
Mr Hakamada declined to divulge the cost of ispace’s rebooted mission with six experiments, saying it is less than the first mission, which topped 100 million dollars (£82 million).
Coming up by the end of February is the second moonshot for Nasa by Houston-based Intuitive Machines.
Last year, the company achieved the first American lunar touchdown in more than a half-century, landing sideways near the south pole, but still managing to operate.
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