A Japanese commercial spacecraft is zeroing in on its second attempt at a lunar landing, now flying laps around the moon.
The company ispace entered lunar orbit more than a week ago, sending its Resilience lander soaring about 62 miles above the surface at its closest approach. For days, fans have asked the company executives to release spacecraft images to show its latest achievement. They finally did on May 16.
The new image not only captures the spacecraft swooping by the moon in space but showcases Tenacious, its accompanying micro rover, hidden under a cover in the lower right corner. A camera mounted to the top of the lander snapped the photo.
"Hello from lunar orbit!" the company said in a post on X.
Resilience was one of two spacecraft headed to the moon on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-January. Its travel companion, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander, took a faster route and touched down on the surface March 2. Though Firefly wasn't the trailblazer — the first private robotic lander to make the journey to the surface occurred last year — it was the first to get its lander there upright and in one piece.
But ispace's lander, a partnership with Japan's space agency JAXA, has taken a longer journey to save on fuel, flying solo through space for the past four months. The so-called Hakuto-R mission is gearing up for a landing near the center of Mare Frigoris at 3:24 p.m. ET on June 5. (It will be June 6 in Japan.) Livestream coverage will begin about one hour earlier, at 2:15 p.m. ET, with English translation.
The event will mark the company's second try, following a failed landing in April 2023. The spacecraft ran out of fuel and crashed on the moon.
"We have successfully completed maneuvers so far by leveraging the operational experience gained in Mission 1, and I am very proud of the crew for successfully completing the most critical maneuver and entering lunar orbit," said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada in a statement. "We will continue to proceed with careful operations and thorough preparations to ensure the success of the lunar landing."
Landing on the moon remains onerous — demonstrated by numerous flopped landings. Though Firefly succeeded in March, another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, didn't fare as well less than a week later, ending up on its side in a crater.
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The moon's exosphere provides virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground, according to NASA. Furthermore, there are no GPS systems on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot. Engineers have to compensate for that from 239,000 miles away.
If the Hakuto-R mission aces the landing, it will spend two weeks running experiments on the lunar surface before powering down for the brutally cold lunar night. Not much can survive the -270 degrees Fahrenheit brought on by darkness — not even robots.
Right now, Resilience is whizzing between 2,000 and 4,200 mph. As it whips through space, company engineers are performing multiple flight correction maneuvers to reel the spacecraft in and lower its energy. That will allow the team to get the spacecraft oriented toward its landing target.
After the botched landing attempt two years ago, Yuichi Tsuda, a professor of astronautical science at Tokyo University, gave the flight controllers words of encouragement.
"History can be made only by those who (face) challenges, and challenges will not be possible without taking a risk," Tsuda said. "The risk can be taken only by those who dream. So ispace teams, you are all excellent dreamers."
