In brief
- The landing is expected Friday at 4:17 a.m. JST near Mare Frigoris.
- ispace will be streaming the landing live in Japanese and English.
- The startup wants to build a lunar city and economy called Moon Valley
Tokyo-listed rocket startup ispace is set for its lunar lander, RESILIENCE, to touch down on the surface of the moon tomorrow morning Japan Standard Time.
RESILIENCE is currently expected to land at 4:17 am JST (3:17 pm ET) near the centre of the Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold), located 60.5 degrees north latitude and 4.6 degrees west longitude.
The company will stream the landing event starting from 3:10 JST (2:10 pm ET) in both Japanese and English.
If successful, it would mark the first successful moon landing by a private Japanese company.
Takeshi Hakamada, the founder and CEO of ispace, said in a statement he was proud to announce a second attempt at landing on the moon following a failed HAKUTO-R Mission 1 two years ago, when the company lost communication with the lander just before touchdown.
“Since that time, we have drawn on the experience, using it as motivation to move forward with resolve. We are now at the dawn of our next attempt to make history,” said Hakamada.
Founded in 2010, ispace has grown to over 280 employees and has laid out ambitious long-term plans for its lunar exploration, including constructing a lunar settlement dubbed “Moon Valley” by 2040.
The company’s vision includes 1,000 permanent moon inhabitants and 10,000 annual visitors, and the creation of a thriving “cislunar economy” between the Earth and the moon.
“We view the success of the lunar landing as merely a stepping stone toward that goal,” Hakamada said.
Ispace is part of a broader wave of private-sector interest in space and interplanetary travel. Last week, Elon Musk unveiled SpaceX’s vision to establish a self-sustaining colony on Mars by the end of the next decade.
However, that effort still faces significant technological hurdles, with Starship rockets continuing to experience failures in test flights.
As for lunar ambitions, the last crewed mission to the moon was NASA’s Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2027, while China targets a manned moon landing by 2030. Both timelines have faced delays.
But uncrewed probe missions have surged in recent years. Since 2020, China’s Chang’e 5 and 6 have returned lunar samples, India has landed its Vikram probe, and Japan has deployed small rovers LEV-1 and LEV-2.
Private U.S. firms such as Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace have also conducted successful landings.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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