A Japanese space company launched a spacecraft to the moon on Sunday after several delays, a step toward what would be a first for the country and a private company.
ispace Inc.’s HAKUTO-R mission lifted off without incident from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
More than a hundred people at a Tokyo viewing party roared in applause as the rocket fired off and soared into the dark skies.
“I am very happy. After repeated delays, it is good that we had a proper launch today,” said Yuriko Takeda, a 28-year-old worker from an electronics company who joined the gathering.
“I have this image of the American flag from the Apollo landing, so while this is just the launch, the fact that it’s a private company going there with a rover is a really significant step.”
Take off! pic.twitter.com/FEenmAJmOz
The national space agencies of the United States, Russia and China have all made soft landings on Earth’s nearest neighbor in the past half century, but no company has.
The success of the mission would also be a milestone in US-Japan space cooperation at a time when China is becoming increasingly competitive and Russian rocket travel is no longer available in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It would also cap a few packed days in space for Japan, after billionaire Yusaku Maezawa revealed on Friday the eight crew members he hopes to take on a SpaceX flyby of the moon as early as next year.
The name HAKUTO refers to the white rabbit that lives on the moon in Japanese folklore, in contrast to the Western idea of a man on the moon. The project was a finalist in the Google Lunar XPRIZE before being revived as a commercial venture.
Next year is the Year of the Rabbit in the Asian calendar. The craft, assembled in Germany, is expected to land on the moon in late April.
The company expects this to be the first of many government and commercial cargo deliveries. The spacecraft aims to put a small NASA satellite into lunar orbit to search for water reservoirs before landing in Atlas crater.
Moon base in progress
The M1 lander will deploy two robotic rovers, a two-wheeled, baseball-sized device from Japan’s space agency JAXA and the four-wheeled Rashid rover made by the United Arab Emirates. It will also carry an experimental solid-state battery made by NGK Spark Plug Co.
“The Rashid rover is part of the ambitious space program of the United Arab Emirates,” said Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also vice president of the United Arab Emirates and witnessed the launch at the Mohammed Space Center. bin Rashid. .
“Our objective is the transfer of knowledge and the development of our capabilities and add a scientific footprint in the history of humanity,” he tweeted.
Privately funded ispace has a contract with NASA to transport payloads to the moon starting in 2025 and aims to build a permanently staffed lunar colony by 2040.
