Japan's ispace, US's Firefly launch commercial moon landers

Kantaro Komiya - Reuters - 15/01
Two moon landers, one from Japan's ispace and another from U.S. space firm Firefly, began their journeys into space on Wednesday with SpaceX's unusual double moonshot launch, underscoring the global rush to examine the lunar surface.
  • ispace's Resilience aims for moon landing after 2023 failure
  • Firefly's Blue Ghost to be third CLPS moon lander
  • Blue Ghost touchdown planned in March, Resilience in May-June
  • NASA's Artemis program faces potential changes under Trump administration
ORLANDO, Florida/TOKYO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Two moon landers, one from Japan's ispace (9348.T), opens new tab and another from U.S. space firm Firefly, began their journeys into space on Wednesday with SpaceX's unusual double moonshot launch, underscoring the global rush to examine the lunar surface.
Japanese moon exploration company ispace launched 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.
Texas-based Firefly Aerospace launched its first moon lander, Blue Ghost, making it the third company to launch a moon lander under NASA's public-private Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
About 300 ispace staff, families and partners clapped and cheered as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying the landers blasted off from Florida at 3:11 p.m. Japan time (0611 GMT). The rocket released Blue Ghost on schedule about an hour after liftoff, and ispace's lander Resilience about 30 minutes after that.
Speaking after the separation, ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada praised the company's determination to try again after 2023's failure.
"A moon landing is not a dream but it has become a reality …and a success would be a huge, huge step forward for ispace," he told reporters.
Intuitive Machines' (LUNR.O), opens new tab mo...
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