| Title | Japanese Company ispace Plans Two Missions to the Moon | |
| Date | Wednesday September 26 2018, @09:21PM | |
| Author | chromas | |
| Topic | ||
| from the ♪we're-whalers-on-the-moon,-we-carry-a-harpoon♫ dept. | ||
Japanese company ispace says it will launch two missions to the Moon in 2020 and 2021
A Japanese company with hopes of exploring the Moon says it has purchased room on two upcoming flights of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in order to transport spacecraft to the lunar surface. These missions, slated for 2020 and 2021, are meant to serve as crucial technology demonstrations for the company, called ispace, which has grander ambitions of becoming a lunar delivery service one day.
The first of ispace's two missions entails putting a spacecraft into orbit around the Moon. If that is successful, then the company will launch its second mission — one that includes a lunar lander and rovers to explore the Moon's surface. All of ispace's hardware will ride as secondary payloads on the Falcon 9 flights; that means they will hitch rides on the larger vehicles that are launching to space and deploy separately. The rockets will drop off the spacecraft in a high orbit above Earth, and the vehicles will cruise the rest of the way to the Moon.
Also at Reuters and Popular Mechanics.
Previously: Japanese Company Could Put "Billboard" on the Moon
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printed from SoylentNews, Japanese Company ispace Plans Two Missions to the Moon on 2024-04-28 03:57:58