Japan and US firms ready moon landers for Florida launch
15/01/2025 05:01
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Ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 aims for moon landing after
April
failure
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Firefly's Blue Ghost to be third CLPS moon lander
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NASA's Artemis program faces potential changes under Trump
administration
By Joey Roulette
ORLANDO, Florida, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Two moon landers,
one from Japan's ispace 9348.T and another from U.S. space
firm Firefly, were fastened atop a SpaceX rocket in Florida on
Tuesday ahead of an unusual double moonshot launch, underscoring
the global rush to peruse the lunar surface.
Japanese space exploration company ispace will launch its
Hakuto-R Mission 2, making its second attempt to land on the
moon after an initial mission in April 2023 failed in its final
moments because of an altitude miscalculation.
While Texas-based Firefly Aerospace will launch its first
moon lander, Blue Ghost, which would make it the third company
to launch a moon lander under NASA's public-private Commercial
Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Intuitive Machines' moon landing last year, albeit lopsided
and partially unsuccessful, marked the first private company and
the first CLPS mission to touchdown on the moon. An earlier
attempt by CLPS member Astrobotic's lander failed shortly after
launch.
Countries and private companies worldwide have been focused
on the moon in recent years for its potential to host astronaut
bases and hold resources that could be mined for in-space
applications, making Earth's natural satellite a stage for
national prestige and geopolitical competition akin to the Cold
War-era space race.
Ispace's Hakuto lander, named Resilience, is carrying $16
million worth of customer missions and six payloads in total,
including an in-house "Micro Rover" that will deploy from the
lander and collect lunar samples, said ispace Executive Business
Director Jumpei Nozaki in an interview.
Hakuto's touchdown on the moon's surface is expected four to
five months after launch, or this summer. It will take an
energy-efficient path relying heavily on the Earth and moon's
gravity in a winding series of flybys to steer its trajectory.
Firefly's Blue Ghost will aim to reach the moon 45 days
after launch, around March 2. That lander is carrying 10
payloads from a variety of NASA-funded customers and one from
Blue Origin-owned Honeybee Robotics.
Both landers' missions will last a full lunar day, or
roughly two weeks. They will not survive the frigid lunar
nighttime where temperatures can plunge to roughly minus 200
degrees Fahrenheit (minus 128 Celsius).
NASA with its Artemis program aims to return humans to the
moon by 2027 - but likely later - for the first time since 1972,
while China plans to put its own crews on the lunar surface by
2030 following a series of robotic missions.
CLPS missions like Firefly's Blue Ghost, privately owned but
substantially funded by NASA, are meant to study the moon's
surface and stimulate private lunar demand before NASA sends
humans there using SpaceX's Starship and later Blue Origin's
Blue Moon lander.
But the U.S. space agency faces potential changes to its
Artemis program with the incoming administration of Donald
Trump, who as president-elect has largely sided with SpaceX CEO
Elon Musk's vision to focus heavily on Mars.
"We've invested in going to the moon and I think everybody
wants us to go back to the moon," Nicky Fox, head of NASA's
science mission directorate who oversees CLPS, told Reuters on
Tuesday when asked about potential changes to the moon program.
"The great thing about NASA science -- we do amazing science
wherever we go," she said.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette Editing by Sandra Maler)
((Joey.Roulette@thomsonreuters.com; 7034696632;))