Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of June touchdown

Tokyo, May 7 (AP) A private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with just another month to go before it attempts a touchdown.
     Tokyo-based ispace said Wednesday morning its Resilience lander entered lunar orbit.
     “The countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun,” the company said in a statement.
     SpaceX launched Resilience with US-based Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander 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's ispace's turn. It's targeting the first week of June for Resilience's touchdown. The company's 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. (AP)
GRS
GRS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)