By Rocky Swift
TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese space startup is hoping third time is the charm on Sunday in its aim to launch the nation’s, and a private company’s, first ever spacecraft to the moon.
ispace Inc’s HAKUTO-R mission is due for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:38 a.m. (4:38 p.m. in Japan, 0738 GMT) after two delays caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The national space agencies of the United States, Russia and China have achieved soft landings on Earth’s nearest neighbour in the past half century but no companies have.
Mission success would also be a milestone in space cooperation between Japan and the United States 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.
It would also cap 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.
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.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by William Mallard)
