Japanese Lunar Lander Achieves Moon Orbit in Preparation for June Landing

A private lunar lander from Japan is set to launch next month, gearing up for its landing attempt.

Based in Tokyo, iSpace announced Wednesday morning that their Resilience Lander has successfully entered lunar orbit.

“The countdown to the lunar landing is officially underway,” the company stated.

SpaceX has partnered with US-based Firefly Aerospace for a moon lander project started in January. Firefly successfully landed their spacecraft in March, becoming the first private entity to achieve a soft landing on the moon. Shortly after, another American company, Intuitive Machines, also landed their spacecraft, but it met with a mishap in a crater.

Now it’s iSpace’s opportunity, aiming for a lunar touchdown during the first week of June. Their previous lander made a hard landing on the moon in 2023.

The lander features a mini rover equipped with a scoop designed to collect lunar samples for analysis and various experiments.