SpaceX Successfully Launches Private Lunar Missions Aboard Falcon 9 Rocket

On Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:09 local time (06:09 GMT), carrying two lunar landers from American and Japanese companies. The missions, initiated by Firefly Aerospace of the U.S. and Japan's ispace, represent the rising wave of commercial endeavors targeting lunar exploration.

Once reaching the Moon's orbit, the landers will detach to commence their independent journeys. Firefly's Blue Ghost rover anticipates a 45-day transit to the Moon. Its mission includes drilling, gathering samples, and capturing X-ray images to facilitate future human lunar expeditions and analyze space weather's effect on Earth. On the other hand, ispace's Resilence lander is projected to take as long as five months to touch the Moon's surface, where it will deploy a rover and collect surface materials, known as regolith. NASA is supporting this initiative, which is expected to be its largest commercial lunar delivery to date. Last year, Intuitive Machines marked a pivotal venture as the first commercial entity to successfully land on the Moon, joining the ranks of nations including the U.S., Soviet Union, China, India, and Japan.

In addition to the lunar mission, SpaceX is also gearing up for its seventh orbital flight test of the Starship rocket, scheduled for a launch from Texas at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT).