Resilience lunar lander enters orbit around the moon

WASHINGTON — Japanese company ispace says its second lunar lander in now in orbit around the moon ahead of a landing attempt in early June.

The company announced May 6 its Resilience lunar lander entered orbit at 4:41 p.m. Eastern that day after performing an approximately nine-minute burn of its main thruster, the longest yet by the spacecraft. The company did not disclose the spacecraft’s orbital parameters.

Achieving lunar orbit is the seventh of 10 milestones for the HAKUTO-R M2 mission, which started with completing pre-launch preparations in January and would conclude with achieving a “steady system state” on the moon after landing. That landing is scheduled for no earlier than June 5 at 3:24 p.m. Eastern.

Resilience launched Jan. 15 on a Falcon 9, sharing the launch with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander. Resilience took a low-energy trajectory to minimize the propulsion needed for reaching the moon, performing a lunar flyby Feb. 14 on a trajectory that took it 1.1 million kilometers from the Earth before returning to go into lunar orbit.

The spacecraft is intended to land near the center of Mare Frigoris, at about 60 degrees north latitude. The company said it is considering three alternative landing sites if needed, but all would support landings through June 8.

The spacecraft is carrying several technology demonstration and other payloads from Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university. It is also carrying a small model house, called Moonhouse, from Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.

In addition, the lander is carrying Tenacious, a “micro rover” developed by ispace’s European subsidiary, ispace Europe. Tenacious will explore the region around the landing site and also collect lunar regolith, which it will transfer ownership of to NASA under a $5,000 agreement the agency awarded in 2020 as part of an initiative to demonstrate rights to lunar resources.

Resilience is ispace’s second lunar lander mission. Its first mission crashed attempting a landing in April 2023, which the company later blamed on a software problem.

“We have successfully completed maneuvers so far by leveraging the operational experience gained in Mission 1, and I am very proud of the crew for successfully completing the most critical maneuver and entering lunar orbit,” Takeshi Hakamada, chief executive of ispace, said in a statement after Resilience entered lunar orbit.

The company’s next lunar lander is being built by its American subsidiary, ispace U.S., as a contractor to Draper. That lander is scheduled to launch in 2026 on a mission that is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. That will be followed by a Japanese-built lander scheduled to launch in 2027.

The company announced April 30 it was part of a team selected by Japan’s space agency JAXA to develop a small lunar orbiter to map water ice deposits on the moon. The project, funded by the country’s Space Strategy Fund, is led by the Institute of Science Tokyo, with ispace stating it will have a “core role” in the spacecraft’s development, launch and operations. The company said it is negotiating a contract with the Institute of Science Tokyo to finalize its role on the project and payment.