Lunar module Hakuto-R will soon reach its destination

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The commercial Japanese lunar lander Hakuto-R is close to the target. Japanese aerospace company Ispace announced Wednesday that it is expected to land on the moon on April 25. If successful, it would be the world’s first private lunar mission.

“I look forward to witnessing this historic day that marks the beginning of a new era in commercial lunar missions,” Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of Ispace, said in a press release Wednesday. A Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in December and carried Hakuto-R to the moon.

Hakuto-R already in orbit

If the mission goes according to plan, the lander will gently land in an area called the Atlas Crater at around 6:40 PM (CEST) on April 25. To carry less fuel, the lander had taken a longer, more energy-efficient route to the moon, using Earth’s gravity and the sun for propulsion. Last month, the probe reached the moon’s orbit.

Hakuto-R has been tested in Ottobrunn near Munich (D), Germany. The lander, 2.3 meters high and 2.6 meters wide with outstretched landing legs, carries international cargo, including a small rover from the United Arab Emirates and an even smaller two-wheeled robot developed by Japan’s state space agency Jaxa and Japanese toymaker Tomy .

Two American competitors, the Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines companies, are also planning their own moon missions in the near future. So far, only government programs have managed to land on the moon. (SDA)

Source: Blick