Japan’s ispace launches world’s first commercial moon lander : A Japanese space startup has launched its own private lander to the Moon aboard a SpaceX rocket, marking a significant step towards what would be a historic first, both for the nation and a private company.
This mission was took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
December 2022 Current Affairs Quiz
HAKUTO refers to the white rabbit that lives on the moon in Japanese folklore. The national space agencies of the United States, Russia and China have already achieved the soft landings on moon. The company designed its craft to use minimal fuel to save money and leave more room for cargo.
It is taking a slow, low-energy path to the Moon, flying 1.6 million km (one million miles) from Earth before looping back and making a planned landing by the end of April. By contrast, NASA’s Orion crew capsule with test dummies took five days to reach the Moon last month. The lunar flyby mission is anticipated to end on Sunday with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.