The launch of a commercial unmanned lunar lander has been postponed again. After yesterday’s previous problems, the launch scheduled for this morning has also been cancelled. A new date has not yet been announced. “If it’s successful, it will be historic.”
The builder of the lander, the company ispace, and the launcher SpaceX report that further checks on the rocket are needed before launch. “We still don’t know exactly what’s going on,” says space expert Rob van den Berg, affiliated with the Sonnenborgh observatory in Utrecht.
This is the first commercial lander to go to the moon. The previous missions, one from India and one from Israel, crashed on the runway. “It would be historic if this worked.” So far only the United States, the Soviet Union (Russia) and China have succeeded.
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Deviation
This rocket takes a detour to the moon. First it goes up to 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, four times as far away as the Moon. This saves a lot of energy, but the journey takes four months. There is therefore the possibility that this rocket, if launched soon, will not be the first commercial rocket to the moon. ‘In January, hopefully, two more commercial rockets will be sent to the moon and take the short route. They could be on the moon within three days,” says Van den Berg.
The Japanese ispace wants to be the first commercial company to land on the moon. Attempts by Israel and India failed. In the long run, ispace wants to mine raw materials and water on the moon. This could help build a manned base on the moon. The Hakuto-R mission is meant to test the design and technology. The Japanese are collaborating with space agencies in the United States and Europe to exploit the moon.
Source: BNR
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