Moon mission launched carrying UAE-built rover

Moon mission launched carrying UAE-built rover

WASHINGTON: A Japanese startup’s spacecraft was launched to the Moon on Sunday in the country’s first-ever lunar mission and the first of its kind by a private company. The launch was carried out by Elon Musk’s SpaceX at Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida after two postponements for additional pre-flight checks.

The spacecraft, produced by Tokyo-based startup ispace and carrying a UAE-built rover, blasted off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 2:38 am (0738 GMT), live footage of the launch showed. “Our first mission will lay the groundwork for unleashing the Moon’s potential and transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system,” the startup’s CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, said in a statement.

So far only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface. The ispace mission is the first of a program called Hakuto-R, which means “white rabbit” in Japanese. The company said its lunar lander was expected to touch down on the visible side of the Moon in April 2023 – the Year of the Rabbit in the Japanese zodiac.

Measuring just over two by 2.5 meters, the spacecraft has a payload that includes a 10-kg rover built by the United Arab