On April 12, Japanese startup space company Ispace announced that its lunar lander is scheduled to land on the Moon on April 26. This event will mark the first successful lunar landing by a private company in the world.
Omotenashi is designed to land on the Moon’s surface at a speed of 180 km/h. (Photo: Kyodo).
If successful, the lander developed by Ispace Inc would also be the first lunar lander from a private or public organization in Japan. In 2022, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) attempted to land the Omotenashi spacecraft on the Moon, but the mission was unsuccessful.
According to the Hakuto-R Exploration Program, Ispace launched the lander to test landing technology, aiming to control the spacecraft’s soft landing on the Moon’s surface from a command center in Tokyo.
The CEO and founder of Ispace, Takeshi Hakamada, emphasized: “I look forward to witnessing this historic day, marking the beginning of a new era of commercial lunar missions.”
The lander was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December 2022.
To carry less fuel, the lander follows a fuel-efficient flight path. In January, the spacecraft was positioned approximately 1,376,000 km from Earth at one point. It entered lunar orbit in March.
The lander is approximately 2.3 meters tall and 2.6 meters wide, carrying a small robot developed by JAXA and toy company Tomy Co.
If the mission proceeds as planned, the lander is expected to touch down at around 1:40 AM JST on April 26 (11:40 PM on April 25, Vietnam time).
