Posted on 12/06/2022 9:14:03 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Private Japanese company iSpace is sending its M1 lander carrying Rashid, a new rover from the United Arab Emirates.
While the Orion spacecraft, a key part of NASA's Artemis I mission, is on its way back to Earth after going far beyond the moon, a new lunar lander from Japan and a small rover from the United Arab Emirates are set to blast off from Florida early Wednesday.
The Hakuto R mission is led by the private Japanese company iSpace and will send its M1 lander, which is about the size of a chest freezer, to the surface of the moon...
Hakamada added that the company is hoping to contribute to the Artemis program. The US space agency has already committed to buy moon rocks that M1 will collect.
Launch had been set for last week, but the company postponed it so that SpaceX could perform additional preflight checks of the launch vehicle. It was the latest of several delays to the launch, which is not all that unusual in the space industry...
iSpace was one of the finalists in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which ended back in 2018 without any winners being declared. But it did raise funds to continue on its own and secure some customers with similar lunar ambitions. That's how a rover named Rashid from the UAE's space program wound up on board M1...
If the mission succeeds, Japan and the UAE will join the US, Russia and China as the only nations that have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface. Another Lunar X Prize finalist, Israel's SpaceIL, attempted its own lunar landing in 2019, but the mission ended with a crash into the moon that destroyed the spacecraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
First published on Nov. 30, 2022
[snip] After further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, SpaceX is standing down from Falcon 9’s launch of ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A new target launch date will be shared once confirmed. [/snip]
https://www.spacex.com/launches/ispace-m1/
From take off, how long will it take to get to “dropping payload” position of the orbiter anyone know?
M1 will get to the moon in April
I don’t, I’m sure it’ll be announced during the run-up countdown to the eventual launch.
Bttt!!
iCan’t take them seriously with a name like iSpace
Doggone it! And they keep pushing Starship’s launch date back, too.
Remember Starship is just a prototype and all those at Starbase look the same but are different inside ,LOL
“iCan’t take them seriously with a name like iSpace”
An even worse name for a company would be iCan’t.
! And they keep pushing Starship’s launch date back, too.
—
Give thanks to the Biden administration’s FAA and EPA. Starship is likely going to be put on indefinite hold, given the level of hate from Biden’s minions.
Agreed
Oh great better check the rover for bombs.
It went up overnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaaF0IgzGSI
OneWeb has had to hire nominal competitor SpaceX (along with the Indian space agency) to launch its budding network, 41 of its satellites went up two days ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm_OjZ5gBLA
Also, I’ve been aware of this, but hadn’t got ‘round to posting anything, Tim Dodd, a.k.a. The Everyday Astronaut, got picked to go on the Dear Moon trip with the Japanese billionaire. FWIW, I want to add my own congratulations to him, even though I don’t generally watch his vids due to their length, I think he’s a brilliant choice!
This one made my screen go all blurry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFIuzormhYU
https://www.youtube.com/@EverydayAstronaut/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiS0vdTiECc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArpS8ZUOeIk
Scott Manley’s update vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWhMaO7RMwc
https://www.youtube.com/@scottmanley/videos
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