Mission 1 Lunar Lander Enters Second Phase of Transit, Becomes Farthest Commercial Operating Spacecraft to Travel into Deep Space
TOKYO—February 28, 2023—ispace, inc., (“ispace”) a global lunar exploration company, released an interim success report and announced that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has entered the second phase of its mission, having traveled to its farthest point from Earth into deep space. The lander is now on a trajectory to the Moon with a scheduled landing for the end of April 2023.
The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander was launched Dec. 11, 2022, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Since being deployed from the rocket, the lander has traveled approximately 1.376 million kilometers into deep space becoming the farthest privately funded, commercially operating spacecraft to travel into space.
As the cruise continues, ispace’s flight team is expecting to complete all deep space orbital maneuvers before Lunar Orbital Insertion to occur around mid-March 2023 (“Success 6”), followed by a Lunar Orbital Insertion maneuver to occur around late March 2023 (“Success 7”). More details will be released once the exact date and timing have been determined.
The announcement was made by Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace, and Ryo Ujiie, CTO of ispace along with other executives at a press conference hosted today in Tokyo.