{"id":40769,"date":"2023-01-19T11:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?p=40769&preview=true&preview_id=40769"},"modified":"2023-01-19T11:19:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:19:57","slug":"japan-heads-to-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2023\/01\/19\/japan-heads-to-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan heads to the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Earth ringed by the second stage of Hakuto-R\u2019s launch vehicle <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cFrom the design point of view, we\u2019ve done everything we can do,\u201d says Takeshi Hakadama, founder and chief executive of iSpace. \u201cWe have high confidence on the landing.\u201d ispace-inc.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n

PHOTO: \u00a92022 CANADENSYS AEROSPACE CORPORATION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lander is expected to touch down in April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5420,"featured_media":40771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"","purple_seq_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"","purple_source_article":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"","purple_source_issue":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"February-2023","purple_external_id":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"February-2023-3ec78245-b3d7-485a-b446-0ef0c83752a4","purple_issue_code":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086561||","purple_android_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.213","purple_ios_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.213","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"maya.hack@immediate.co.uk","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/maya-hackimmediate-co-uk\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview.jpg",2298,2033,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview-300x265.jpg",300,265,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview-768x679.jpg",768,679,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview-1024x906.jpg",800,708,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview-1536x1359.jpg",1536,1359,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/Canadensys_1_preview-2048x1812.jpg",2048,1812,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"maya.hack@immediate.co.uk","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/maya-hackimmediate-co-uk\/"},"uagb_comment_info":143,"uagb_excerpt":"The lander is expected to touch down in April","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40769"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40887,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40769\/revisions\/40887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}