Spacex used for Japanese launch on first private lunar mission

‘Our aim is knowledge transfer and to add a scientific imprint in the history of humanity’

A JAPANESE start-up became the first private company to launch a lunar spacecraft yesterday, using a Space X rocket for its mission to the Moon.

The launch of the ispace Inc’s Hakuto-r took place without incident from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its Falcon 9 rocket built by Space X, Elon Musk’s company.

Mission success would be a milestone in space cooperation between Japan and the US at a time when China is becoming increasingly competitive and rides on Russian rockets are no longer available in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Privately funded ispace has a contract with Nasa to ferry payloads to the Moon from 2025 and is aiming to build a permanently staffed lunar colony by 2040.

The launch caps a space-filled few days 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 soon 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 in 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 hopes this will be the first of many deliveries of government and commercial payloads. The ispace craft aims to put a small Nasa satellite into lunar orbit to search for water deposits before touching down in the Atlas Crater.

The M1 lander will deploy two robotic rovers, a two-wheeled, baseball-sized device from Japan’s Jaxa space agency and the four-wheeled Rashid explorer made by the United Arab Emirates. It will also be carrying an experimental solid-state battery made by NGK Spark Plug Co.

“The Rashid rover is part of the United Arab Emirates’ ambitious space programme,” said Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-maktoum, who is also vice-president of the UAE and who watched the launch at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

“Our aim is knowledge transfer and developing our capabilities and to add a scientific imprint in the history of humanity,” he tweeted.

More than a hundred people at a viewing party in Tokyo roared in applause when the rocket lifted into the dark skies.