Japan's ispace, US Firefly launch commercial moon landers

ORLANDO, Florida/TOKYO: On January 15, two moon landers, one from Japan's ispace and another from the U.S. company Firefly Aerospace, launched into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

This "double moonshot" highlights the global interest in exploring the moon.

Japan's ispace launched its Hakuto-R Mission 2, making a second attempt to land on the moon after its first mission in April 2023 failed due to an