Hakuto-R, a commercial lunar lander from Japanese company iSpace, launched on 11 December and entered lunar orbit three days later. The lander is expected to attempt a soft touch down in Atlas Crater in the northeastern region of the Moon in April 2023.
The lander has been in development for 12 years, having originally begun as a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize. This first mission is predominantly a flight test, but it does carry several payloads including the Rashid lunar rover from the United Arab Emirates. A second mission is already planned for 2024.
However, Hakuto-R may not be the first commercial lander on the Moon, as US companies Astrobotic and Intuitive Landers are due to follow in early 2023. But successfully touching down on the lunar surface is difficult, as the 2019 crash-landing and loss of the Beresheet lander operated by Israeli organisation SpaceIL demonstrated.
“From the design point of view, we’ve done everything we can do,” says Takeshi Hakadama, founder and chief executive of iSpace. “We have high confidence on the landing.” ispace-inc.com