Japanese house startup readies for second lunar lander launch

Japanese house startup Ispace is getting ready to launch its second lunar lander on Wednesday, aiming to attain a historic milestone in private-sector house exploration.

The Resilience lander, a part of Ispace’s Mission 2 below the Hakuto-R program, will raise off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 a.m. (3:11 p.m. JST).

The mission is a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, with Resilience’s lunar touchdown anticipated between late May and early June.