Japanese lunar company ispace aims to launch first cargo mission to the moon next month

Japanese lunar exploration institution ispace announced plans connected Wednesday to motorboat its archetypal cargo ngo adjacent month, racing to beryllium the archetypal of respective backstage ventures to present payloads to the moon's surface.

The backstage institution aims to motorboat its "Mission 1" lunar lander during a model betwixt Nov. 9 and Nov. 15, riding connected 1 of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Mission 1 volition transportation a assortment of payloads for some companies and governments, including a brace of rovers. The institution completed investigating of its spacecraft successful September, and is astir to transport the lander to Florida.

Alongside ispace successful the burgeoning lunar cargo marketplace are the likes of U.S. companies Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, some of which program to motorboat missions to the moon's aboveground adjacent year.

Born retired of Google's Lunar XPRIZE competition past decade, ispace aims to supply a wide assortment of lunar-focused services, ranging from proscription of cargo to selling information to abstraction agencies.

It present has much than 200 employees crossed its offices successful Japan, Luxembourg and the U.S. To day ispace has raised much than $200 cardinal successful funding.