Japan firm to attempt historic landing on the Moon

History in the making: This image provided by ispace depicts the Hakuto spacecraft on the surface of the moon with the Earth in the background. — AP

A JAPANESE space start-up will attempt to become the first private company to put a lander on the Moon.

ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander would have started its descent towards the lunar surface at around 1540 GMT yesterday.

It will slow its orbit some 100km above the Moon, then adjust its speed and altitude to make a “soft landing” around an hour later.

Success is far from guaranteed. In April 2019, Israeli organisation SpaceIL watched their lander crash into the Moon’s surface.

ispace has announced three alternative landing sites and could shift the lunar descent date to April 26, May 1 or May 3, depending on conditions.

“What we have accomplished so far is already a great achievement, and we are already applying lessons learned from this flight to our future missions,” ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada said earlier this month.

“The stage is set. I am looking forward to witnessing this historic day, marking the beginning of a new era of commercial lunar missions.”

The lander, standing just over two metres tall and weighing 340 kilogrammes, has been in lunar orbit since last month.

It was launched from Earth in December on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets after several delays.

So far only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface, all through government-sponsored programmes. — AFP