The ispace expedition is named Hakuto, which translates to “white rabbit” in Japanese. A white rabbit is thought to reside on the moon in Asian legend. The private business plans a second lunar landing in 2024 and a third in 2025.
Founded in 2010, ispace was a finalist in the Google Lunar XPRIZE project, which required a successful lunar landing by 2018. Ispace’s lunar rover was never launched.
Another candidate, the Israeli charity SpaceIL, succeeded in reaching the moon in 2019. Instead of landing peacefully, the Beresheet spacecraft smashed with the moon and was destroyed.
With its predawn launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday, ispace is now one of the first commercial enterprises to attempt a lunar landing. Despite not launching until early next year, lunar landers made by Astrobotic Technology in Pittsburgh and Intuitive Machines in Houston may beat ispace to the moon because of shorter cruise periods.
Only Russia, the United States, and China have made so-called “soft landings” on the moon, dating back to the former Soviet Union’s Luna 9 in 1966. Only the United States has landed astronauts on the moon’s surface: 12 men in six landings.
