2 private lunar landers head to the Moon in a circuitous journey: NPR

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In a two-for-one shot at the Moon, SpaceX launched two lunar landers Wednesday for U.S. and Japanese companies looking to restart operations on Earth’s dusty companion.

The two landers lifted off in the middle of the night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the latest in a series of private spacecraft aiming for the Moon. They shared the ride to save money, taking separate detour routes for the months-long trip.

It takes two for Tokyo-based ispace, whose first lander crashed on the moon two years ago. This time, it has on board a rover equipped with a shovel to scoop up lunar soil for study and plans to test potential sources of food and water for future explorers.

Texas-based moon newcomer Firefly Aerospace is carrying out 10 experiments for NASA, including a vacuum cleaner to collect dirt, a drill to measure subsurface temperature and a device that could be used by future moonwalkers. moon to keep sharp, abrasive particles out of their spacesuits. and equipment.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost – named after a species of fireflies in the southeastern United States – is expected to reach the moon first. The 2-meter-tall lander will attempt to land in early March on Mare Crisium, a volcanic plain in northern latitudes.

The slightly larger ispace lander named Resilience will take four to five months to get there, aiming for a landing in late May or early June at Mare Frigoris, even further north on the near side of the Moon.

“We don’t think it’s a race. Some say ‘race to the moon,’ but it’s not about speed,” ispace founding CEO Takeshi Hakamada said this week , from Cape Canaveral.

Hakamada and Firefly CEO Jason Kim acknowledge the challenges ahead given the debris littering the lunar landscape. Only five countries have successfully placed spacecraft on the Moon since the 1960s: the former Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan.

“We did everything we could in terms of design and engineering,” Kim said. Still, he pinned an Irish shamrock to the lapel of his jacket Tuesday night for good luck.

The United States remains the only country to have landed astronauts. NASA’s Artemis program, Apollo’s successor, aims to return astronauts to the Moon by the end of the decade.

Before that can happen, “we’re sending a lot of science and technology data in advance to prepare for that,” Nicky Fox, NASA’s science mission leader, said on the eve of the launch.

If they successfully complete their respective landings, both spacecraft will spend two weeks operating in constant daylight, shutting down once darkness falls.

Once lowered to the lunar surface, the 11-pound ispace rover will stay close to the lander, traveling up to hundreds of yards (meters) in circles at a speed of less than an inch (a few centimeters) per second. The rover has its own special delivery to drop on the lunar dust: a toy-sized red house designed by a Swedish artist.

NASA is paying Firefly $101 million for the mission and another $44 million for the experiments. Hakamada declined to disclose the cost of ispace’s rebooted mission with six experiments, saying it is less than the first mission which exceeded $100 million.

At the end of February, the second moonshot for NASA will take place, carried out by Intuitive Machines, based in Houston. Last year, the company achieved the first moon landing in the United States in more than half a century, landing sideways near the South Pole but still managing to function.