Category Archives: ispace

Friday / 24 January 2025

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Moon Landers On-Track and Planned for 2025

Firefly Blue Ghost reporting nominal operations and receiving signals from 331,000+ km distance, projected lunar landing 2 Mar; ispace lander Resilience to attempt mission Milestone 5 lunar flyby ~15 Feb after reaching 1.1M km apogee, Moon touchdown earliest date 15 May; if Intuitive Machines IM-2 launches on planned date of 26 Feb, landing expected 6-7 Mar; Blue Moon Pathfinder to launch on Blue Origin New Glenn as early as summer 2025, while Astrobotic Griffin could launch in fall

Credits: SpaceX, ispace, Firefly Aerospace, Blue Origin, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines

Friday / 17 January 2025

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2 Landers On Their Way to the Moon, 3rd to Follow Soon

Although 9 hours is minimum travel time for Earth to Moon, two Moon landers launched 15 Jan, 01:11 EST, to arrive after 45 days (Firefly) and 4-5 months (ispace); flight was orbital number 100 for SpaceX from 39A pad where Apollo 11 launched to Moon; ispace lander Resilience has communicated as planned on its mission that saves fuel for a soft touchdown; Firefly lander Blue Ghost separated from rocket ~1 hr post-launch into elliptical Earth orbit, established comms with mission ops in Cedar Park TX, where techs determined all-systems-go for landing 2 Mar; Intuitive Machines IM-2 lander has expected launch 26 Feb 19:02 from Florida and touchdown 6-7 Mar

Credits: Firefly, ispace, SpaceX, Intuitive Machines

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 10-13 January 2025

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Historic First: Two International Commercial Lunar Landers on Single Rocket Set for Jan 15 Launch

Firefly Aerospace first lunar lander ‘Blue Ghost’ carries ~150 kg of 10 NASA payloads within total weight ~490 kg, is go for launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket 15 January, heads to land at Mare Crisium (18.56°N, 61.81°E) NET 1 March (~45 days later) with LEXI refurbished X-ray instrument to read Earth magnetosphere / auroras, with Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin) PlanetVac to stir regolith / photograph dust, and with Redwire (NYSE: RDW) imaging technology to assist landing; ispace Japan second mission with ~340 kg lander Hakuto-R M2 ‘Resilience’, carrying ~5-kg RESILIENCE micro-rover, will travel 4-5 months before planned touchdown at Mare Frigoris (60.5°N, 4.6°W)

Credits: Firefly, ispace, SpaceX

New Year Edition
Friday-Monday
20 Dec 2024 – 6 Jan 2025

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Commercial Companies Preparing Lunar Landers for Launches Within 1-9 Months

 ispace, inc. (Tokyo: 9348) announced 10 Mission 2 milestones planned January to June 2025 for Resilience lander with commercial payloads and NASA project (to collect / image regolith) at Mare Frigoris ~60.5° N; aboard the same Falcon 9 will be Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission 1, expecting touchdown ~March at Mare Crisium, 17° N, with 10 payloads from NASA, enterprise, academia; in February, Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR) plans IM-2 launch via Falcon 9, arriving ~7 days later to Mons Mouton to prospect for water ice; Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 1 lander set to launch NET March on Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, carrying 3,000 kg of payloads; Astrobotic Griffin Mission One, flying NET Fall 2025 to Nobile Region, ~85° S, will carry MoonBox™ payloads for individuals

Credits: (clockwise from upper left) ispace, SpaceX, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, NASA photo of Blue Origin lander, Firefly Aerospace

Tuesday / 3 December 2024

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Two Lunar Landers at Kennedy Space Center Awaiting Launch, Third Will Soon Arrive

JAXA / ispace lunar lander Mission 2 Resilience is now at KSC preparing to carry Tenacious micro rover / commercial payloads including a model house to Mare Figoris, 60.5° N, 4.6° W, is called “culmination of the Hakuto-R program; Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander awaits launch from LC39A during 6-day window mid-January, carries 10 payloads including for NASA CLPS to Mare Crisium after 45-day journey with orbits of Earth and Moon; Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander Athena for IM-2 mission expected to arrive soon at KSC, will carry NASA CLPS payloads to Mouton Plateau (Leibnitz); all will launch NET January via SpaceX Falcon 9

Credits: JAXA / ispace, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines

Tuesday / 14 May 2024

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ispace Projects Significant Demand of Lunar Services, ISRO Targeting Shiv Shakti with Chandrayaan-4

Japan first commercial lunar lander company ispace projecting 138% increase in year-on-year net sales, growing to JPY¥4,033M (US$25.8M) in FY2024 possibly buoyed by international orders for lunar landers and robots, especially from USA, which may mitigate expected JPY¥12,465M ($79.8M) loss, with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada (R) characterizing business environment as ‘quite positive‘ in light of USA-Japan Artemis agreement; Nilesh Desai, director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, declares Shiv Shakti point (Statio Shiv Shakti by IAU designation, 69.373°S, 32.319°E) will be destination of Chandrayaan-4, building on successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, possibly returning sample closer to MSP than any previous NET 2028

 
Credits: ispace, ISRO, SAC

Tuesday / 16 April 2024

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ispace Japan and USA, Luxembourg Subsidiaries Preparing for Second and Third Moon Landing Missions

Resilience lunar lander being readied at Tsukuba JAXA facility as micro rover (1 of 5 manifested payloads to be delivered on HAKUTO-R Mission 2 NET Q4 2024), progresses to flight model build phase following successful testing of qualification model by ispace Luxembourg affiliate; Micro rover is key equipment for fulfillment of NASA regolith purchase under which both ispace Japan and USA were awarded precedent-setting $5,000 contracts; ispace USA also partnering with Draper on APEX 1.0 lander under CLPS contract, and will work with Raytheon subsidiary Blue Canyon Technologies to deploy 2 ‘Venus class’ cis-lunar relay satellites during NET 2026 mission

Pictured: (L-R) ispace-U.S. CEO Ron Garan, ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, Ispace-Europe engineer; Credits: ispace

Friday / 15 March 2024

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ispace of Japan Preparing Next Moon Missions with International Partnerships, MSP Landing Sites

Hakuto-R Mission 2 on track for Q4 2024 launch of Resilience lander to undeclared location on Moon (ispace has conducted site characterization near Amundsen Crater [82.04°S, 66.36°E], ~220 km NE of Malapert Massif, a noteworthy MSP destination) carrying 5 commercial payloads including Gundam-inspired ‘Charter of the Universal Century’ and ~5kg micro-rover with 26×31.5x54cm dimensions, built by Luxembourg subsidiary; ispace working with global companies including Control Data Systems (Romania) on UWB position measurement, mu Space (Thailand) on cislunar satellite construction, and Rhea Space Activity (USA) on navigation device; Mission 3 being developed by ispace USA in conjunction with Draper Labs, General Atomics, Karman Space & Defense under US$73M CLPS contract launching to Schrödinger Basin NET 2026

Credits: ispace

Tuesday / 12 Dec 2023

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ispace and Orbit Fab Partnering on Moon Fuel Extraction and Transport

While working towards HAKUTO-R mission 2 NET 2024 and design of APEX 1.0 with Draper for CLPS CP-12 NET 2026, ispace looking to foster long-term lunar commercial development, signing MoU with Orbit Fab of Lafayette CO on in-space propellant mining / transfer technology maturation with “a series of innovative demonstrations, including resource mapping and ISRU” to be performed; Orbit Fab hopes to grow market for its Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) standard and is preparing to demonstrate 50-kg hydrazine refueling of USSF Tetra-5 utilizing Impulse Space depot Mira NET 2025

Credits: ispace, Orbit Fab

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 10-13 Nov 2023

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4 Lunar Lander Companies Working to Support USA Return to the Moon / Artemis Under NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Service

CLPS providers currently under contract to land NASA and independent payloads on Moon are Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, Firefly and Draper: Astrobotic Peregrine awaiting launch from KSC to Gruithuisen Domes NET 24 Dec, Griffin lander to carry VIPER NET Nov 2024; Intuitive Machines targeting 12 Jan launch of Nova-C to Malapert A and again in 2024 to deliver PRIME-1 drill to Shackleton connecting ridge; Firefly Blue Ghost scheduled to land in Mare Crisium NET 2024 and on the lunar farside NET 2026, delivering radio astronomy LuSEE-Night and SPIDER seismometer; Draper is also targeting Schrödinger Basin on far side NET 2025 with APEX 1.0 lander built in collaboration with ispace USA

Credits: Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, Firefly, Draper, NASA