SpaceX delays mission to put first private and Japanese lander on the Moon

The lander mission is the first of a program called “Hakuto-R”. This original Hakuto mission was one of five finalists in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which launched in 2007.

The contest was intended to encourage the development of the first private mission to land a rover on the moon, drive it 547 yards, and transmit high-definition images and video back to Earth. While the competition ended in 2018 without a winner, some of the projects continue.

(Another finalist — Israel’s SpaceIL — made an attempt to land on the Moon back in early 2019, but the craft crashed instead.)

According to ispace, the firm’s goal is “to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon.

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1703911/spacex-postpones-ispace-first-private-japanese-moon-lunar-lander-spacex-rocket