If successful, it would be the first lunar landing ever achieved by a private company in Asia.

Spacelive

The ipsace lander is scheduled to touch down on the moon on Friday (Image: ispace)

A second lunar lander developed by Japanese space startup ispace Inc. will attempt to land on the moon tonight. If successful, it would be the first lunar landing ever achieved by a private company in Asia.

The lander blasted off from Earth aboard a SpaceX rocket in January and is currently orbiting the Moon at an altitude of approximately 100 kilometres, travelling at around 5,800 kilometres per hour in a circular path. Touchdown is scheduled for 4:17AM Japan time (8.17PM GMT) in the Moon's northern region, near the so-called "Sea of Ice."

Scientists hope to be able to collect samples of lunar soil using a small rover and carry out the world's first commercial transaction on the Moon by transferring ownership of the collected material to NASA. A previous attempt in 2023 by ispace at a lunar landing ended in failure after the spacecraft lost altitude data and crashed from roughly five kilometres above the surface.

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in 50 mins19:56 John Varga

Ispace boss confident of a successful monn landing

Takeshi Hakamada, who founded Ispace in 2010 and serves as the company’s CEO, said he was confident that Resilience would fare much beter than the previous lander Hakuto-R.

“I’m very confident, more confident than (during) Mission 1,” he told CNN in May.

Hakamada also told the US media outlet that he was inspired to become a space engineer after watching the Star Wars movie as a child.

Japan

Takeshi Hakamada founded Ispace (Image: Getty)

in 29 mins19:35 John Varga

Key moments to watch out for

The Resilience lander is is aiming for a spot within Mare Frigoris — or the “Sea of Cold” — which lies in the moon’s far northern reaches.

As it moves out of orbit, the spacecraft will change its orientation and start to brake.

Ispace should confirm the vehicle has safely touched down within a minute or so after landing.

The first image from the lander is expected within the 12 hours after touch down, perhaps sooner.

1 hour ago17:42 John Varga

Welcome to the blog

Welcome to the blog. The Japanese start-up ispace will attempt to make history by becoming the first private company in Asia to put a spacecraft on the moon.

The lunar lander is set to touch down on the moon's surface at 4.15am local time on Friday.

We will be following all the latest developments in the blog.