Private resilience, Lunar Lander is approaching the moon for the first time.
The resilience, built by Japanese company Ispace, attacked the moon’s flyby on Friday evening (February 14), coming within just 5,220 miles (8,400 kilometers) of the Earth’s closest neighbor.
Lander snapped the milestone in the photo Nice shot The ruined lunar surface from a distance of 8,972 miles (14,439 km).
The close encounter was “the historic first of that type for a private commercial lunar landing gear in Japan.” According to iSpace. It gave resilience fuel-saving gravity assist and altered the lander’s trajectory in a way that would arrive in the lunar orbit expected in early May.
The Resilience was launched on January 15th on top of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It was also carried by Blue Ghost, the second private moonlander, built and operated by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
The blue ghost is already circling the moon. Arrived on Thursday (February 13th) and this morning (February 18th), the engine burned and lowered its track around Earth’s recent neighbors.
Firefly’s first lunar lander, Blue Ghost, is preparing for a touchdown attempt two weeks later. If everything goes according to the plan, the spacecraft will land on March 2nd at Mare Crisium (“Sea of ​​the Sea”), a large volcanic basin near the moon.
Elasticity, on the other hand, targets Mare Frigoris (“cold seas”) in the northern hemisphere of the moon. Touchdowns are scheduled for late May or early June. Lander is powered by five science and technology payloads, including a mini rover named Tenaiss, built by Ispace’s Luxembourg-based subsidiary.
This gear is not built by NASA. In contrast, Blue Ghost has 10 agency experiments. American Lander’s mission is supported by NASA’s Commercial Month Payload Services program.
Resilience is Ispace’s second moonlander. It successfully completed its first lunar orbit in March 2023, but failed with a touchdown try a month later after being confused by the rims of the lunar crater.
