A private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with just another month to go before it attempts a touchdown.
Tokyo-based said Wednesday morning its Resilience lander entered lunar orbit.
鈥淭he countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun,鈥 the company said in a statement.
SpaceX launched Resilience with U.S-based Firefly Aerospace鈥檚 in January. Firefly got there first in March, becoming the first private outfit to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Another American company, Intuitive Machines, landed a spacecraft on the moon a few days later, but it ended up sideways in a crater.
Now it鈥檚 ispace鈥檚 turn. It's targeting the first week of June for Resilience's touchdown. The company鈥檚 first lander crashed into the moon in 2023.
The lander holds a mini rover equipped with a scoop to gather lunar dirt for analysis as well as other experiments.
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