A Japanese company is about to attempt what no other private business has done: land on the moon.
Tokyo's ispace company put its own spacecraft into orbit around the moon a month ago.
On Tuesday, flight controllers will direct the craft, named Hakuto, Japanese for white rabbit, to descend from 60 miles (100 kilometers) high and land.
The 7-foot lander is carrying a mini lunar rover for the United Arab Emirates and a toylike robot from Japan designed to roll around in the moon dust.
Hakuto took a long, roundabout route to the moon following its December liftoff, beaming back photos of Earth along the way.
Only three governments have successfully landed on the moon: Russia, the United States and China. An Israeli nonprofit tried to land on the moon in 2019, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact.
Citation: Tokyo company aims to be 1st business to put lander on moon (2023, April 25) retrieved 25 April 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-04-tokyo-company-aims-1st-business.html
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