Japan’s ispace Launches World’s First Commercial Moon Lander: Japan is elated and proud of its space startup, which has made a crucial step toward what would be a first-ever for the country and a private enterprise by successfully launching a spacecraft to the moon. This has not been an easy task and got successful after multiple delays. The fact that it is the first successful mission to the moon by a private company further distinguishes it as being special.
December 2022 Current Affairs Quiz
About The Mission: ispace Inc’s HAKUTO-R Mission:
It took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Additionally, two inspections of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket led to two postponements, however, the mission crossed all hurdles efficiently.
Mission of Its Kind:
What makes the mission unique is that soft landings on the moon have already been done by national space agencies of countries like Russia, China, and the United States, however, it is a new thing for a company to achieve this goal. Furthermore, the mission is a vital first step toward Japanese and American space collaboration.
What Is HAKUTO: More About This Mission:
HAKUTO is a term used for a white rabbit that resides on the moon, as per Japanese folklore. The ispace craft intends to deploy a tiny NASA satellite into the orbit of the moon to look for water deposits prior to its touch in the Atlas Crater. The M1 lander will also deploy the four-wheeled Rashid explorer, a baseball-sized device from the JAXA space agency, and two robotic rovers. The Rashid explorer is crafted by the United Arab Emirates.
About ispace:
The ispace is a privately funded organization based in Tokyo. It shares a contract with NASA to ferry payloads to the lunar surface from the year 2025. It aims to create a permanently staffed lunar colony by the year 2040.
