Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of June touchdown
This photo provided by ispace in January 2025 shows the Resilience lunar lander.
By MARCIA DUNN
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.
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.
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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