A Japanese Spacecraft Gears Up for Its Second Moon Landing Attempt

A commercial spacecraft from Japan is nearing its second endeavor to land on the moon. The Resilience lander, engineered by the Tokyo-based firm ispace, is currently circling the moon after successfully entering its orbit over a week ago. At its nearest point, the spacecraft is hovering just 62 miles above the moon’s surface.

On May 16, ispace shared the inaugural image from the mission, depicting the spacecraft soaring past the moon. The photograph, captured by a camera mounted atop the lander, also shows Tenacious, a small rover sheltered beneath a protective cover in the lower right corner.

“Greetings from lunar orbit!” the company shared on X (formerly Twitter), marking the occasion.

If the mission, labeled Hakuto-R, achieves a successful landing, the lander will function on the moon’s surface for two weeks, performing experiments before going into standby mode for the bitterly cold lunar night, where temperatures can drop to -270 degrees Fahrenheit—conditions too severe for most robotic systems to endure.

Resilience was one of two spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-January. Its partner, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander, opted for a quicker path and successfully landed on March 2. Although not the first private robotic lander to reach the moon, Blue Ghost was the first to achieve a secure upright landing.

In contrast, ispace chose a more gradual, fuel-efficient route, with Resilience journeying solo through space for four months. The lander is currently set for a landing near the center of Mare Frigoris, a lunar plain, at 3:24 p.m. ET on June 5 (June 6 in Japan). ispace will broadcast the landing attempt live starting at 2:15 p.m. ET, with English commentary provided.

This is ispace’s second attempt at a lunar landing. The initial effort in April 2023 was unsuccessful when the spacecraft depleted its fuel and crashed. This time, the company is applying insights gained from that experience.

“We have effectively performed maneuvers thus far by utilizing the operational experience acquired in Mission 1, and I am immensely proud of the crew for successfully executing the most crucial maneuver and achieving lunar orbit,” stated ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada. “We will maintain careful operations and thorough preparations to secure the success of the lunar landing.”

Landing on the moon poses a significant challenge. The moon’s exosphere provides almost no atmospheric resistance to decelerate a spacecraft during descent, and there are no GPS systems to assist landers. Engineers must navigate and manage the descent from 239,000 miles away on Earth.

Recent missions have highlighted the difficulties of lunar landings. While Firefly Aerospace succeeded in March, another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, experienced a mishap by landing its spacecraft on its side in a crater just days later.

As of now, Resilience is orbiting the moon at speeds ranging from 2,000 to 4,200 mph. Engineers are conducting a series of flight adjustment maneuvers to gradually lower the spacecraft’s energy and align it with its designated landing area.

After the unsuccessful landing in 2023, Yuichi Tsuda, a professor of astronautical science at Tokyo University, offered encouragement to the ispace team: “History is made only by those who confront challenges, and those challenges can only be faced by taking risks. The risks are taken only by those who have dreams. So ispace teams, you are all remarkable dreamers.”

With its second opportunity approaching, ispace is eager to transform dreams into reality.