A SpaceX Falcon 9 roared off the launch pad at 1:11 AM EST this morning from Kennedy Space Center carrying two lunar landers into orbit and on their way to the moon.

The second stage and lunar landers achieved their initial orbits at seven minutes and forty-nine seconds into the flight, and that orbit was modified fifty-eight minutes and twenty-four seconds later by a relatively long one minute and one second second burn by the second stage prior to payload deployment.

Around eight minutes and twenty seconds after lifting off, Booster B1085 completed its 5th mission when it touched down safely on ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’, which was stationed offshore downrange. JRTI and B1085 will now return to Port Canaveral for offloading and preparation for B1085’s next flight.

At 2:18 AM EST, SpaceX confirmed the deployment of the Firefly Blue Ghost Lander:

Blue Ghost will begin a roughly 45-day journey to the Moon, where it will land on Mare Crisium. It will then conduct numerous experiments for NASA and the Artemis Program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface in this decade.

At 2:45 AM, SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the iSpace HAKUTO-R lander:

“We have established communication with the RESILIENCE lander, and have stabilized its attitude and power supply,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace. “We will make full use of the knowledge and experience gained in Mission 1 to prepare for the first orbit control maneuver scheduled in the near future. While the lander carries 6 payloads including the TENACIOUS micro rover, no deficiencies in the lander’s core system have been identified.”

The deployment of HAKUTO-R concluded the customer portion of SpaceX’s flight.

Payloads

Firefly Blue Ghost Lunar Lander

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is designed to deliver a suite of scientific instruments and commercial payloads to the Moon’s surface. Developed under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, Blue Ghost aims to demonstrate innovative technologies while advancing lunar science.

Blue Ghost’s mission includes:

• Delivering science experiments and technology demonstrations funded by NASA and commercial partners.
• Testing new systems to support future lunar exploration.
• Gathering data to prepare for sustained human presence on the Moon.

Learn more about the Blue Ghost lander on Firefly Aerospace’s website.

iSpace Hakuto-R Lunar Lander

Joining Blue Ghost is the Hakuto-R lunar lander, developed by iSpace, a Japanese company dedicated to expanding humanity’s presence on the Moon. Hakuto-R is part of iSpace’s bold vision to establish a lunar economy through cargo delivery services and resource utilization.

Key objectives for Hakuto-R include:

• Demonstrating landing and operational capabilities on the lunar surface.
• Delivering payloads for commercial customers.
• Advancing technologies to enable sustainable lunar operations.

Payloads

On board the RESILIENCE lunar lander will be commercial customer payloads including:

·           Water electrolyzer equipment: From Takasago Thermal Engineering Co.

·           Food production experiment: A self-contained module from Euglena Co.

·           Deep space radiation probe: Developed by the Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan 

·           Commemorative alloy plate: Developed by Bandai Namco Research Institute, Inc. and modeled after “Charter of the Universal Century” from the animation Mobile Suit Gundam UC

·           TENACIOUS micro rover: Developed by ispace-EUROPE, this rover will explore the landing site, collect lunar regolith, and relay data back to the lander. It will be equipped with a forward-mounted HD camera and a shovel.

·           Moonhouse: A model house by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg that will be mounted on the rover.

The RESILIENCE lander will serve as a cultural artifact, carrying a UNESCO memory disk that preserves linguistic and cultural diversity.

For more details about Hakuto-R and iSpace’s ambitions, visit their official website.

What’s Next?

iSpace announced today that mission operations specialists in the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo have established a communication link with the RESILIENCE lunar lander and confirmed a stable attitude as well as stable generation of electrical power in orbit.

iSpace provided this chart illustrating the progress of the mission early this morning:

From Firefly, the Blue Ghost lander next steps are

• Transit: Blue Ghost will spend approximately 45 days in transit to the Moon, including about 25 days in Earth orbit, 4 days in lunar transit, and 16 days in lunar orbit.
• Descent: Blue Ghost’s final autonomous descent will take approximately an hour, starting with a Descent Orbit Insertion burn that will place Blue Ghost on its descent trajectory.
• Surface Operations: Upon touchdown, Blue Ghost will operate 10 NASA instruments for a complete lunar day (about 14 Earth days).
• Total Eclipse: Just before lunar night, Blue Ghost will capture HD imagery of a total eclipse from the Moon where the Earth blocks the sun.
• Lunar Night: At the end of the mission, Blue Ghost will capture the lunar sunset before operating several hours into the lunar night.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

Blue Origin plans to make a second attempt to launch its New Glenn rocket on its debut mission

• Date: NET January 16, 2025
• Organization: Blue Origin
• Mission: NG-1
• Rocket: New Glenn
• Launch Site: LC-36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
• Launch Window: 01:00 – 04:00 EST (0600-0900 UTC)
• Payload: Blue Ring Pathfinder

Note: this article was prepared using information and text from iSpace and Firefly Aerospace.