The Resilience spacecraft, created by Tokyo-based ispace, arrived at the Moon on schedule on Tuesday, May 6, giving it the opportunity to make a historic landing attempt in a month, reports Space.com, writes UNN.
Details
First of all, we are extremely pleased that the Resilience lander successfully reached lunar orbit as planned today. We will continue with careful operations and thorough preparation to ensure the success of the Moon landing.
Resilience was launched on January 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket along with another private lunar lander — Blue Ghost, which was created and operated by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
Blue Ghost chose a more direct path to the Moon, arriving in lunar orbit on February 13 and landing on Earth's nearest neighbor on March 2. It was a historic moment - Blue Ghost became the second private spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, after Intuitive Machines' Odysseus in February 2024.
Resilience, on the other hand, was in no hurry, choosing a low-energy and fuel-saving path that included a close flyby of the Moon on February 14.
If all goes according to plan, Resilience will land on June 5 within Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold - ed.), a basalt plain in the northern hemisphere of the Moon. A successful landing will be the second for Japan, whose national space agency launched a spacecraft called SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon - ed.) in January 2024.
Resilience carries five scientific and technical payloads. One of them is a miniature rover called Tenacious, which was built by ispace's subsidiary in Luxembourg.
Tenacious will collect some lunar dust under contract with NASA. The small rover carries its own payload - the "Lunar House", a project by artist Mikael Genberg, which is located on the front bumper of Tenacious.
The landing attempt on June 5 will be the second for ispace, which aims to help open the Moon for further exploration and resource development. The company's first lunar lander successfully reached orbit in March 2023, but failed during a landing attempt in April of that year.
Addition
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft took detailed images of the Sun from a distance of 77 million km. The mission, launched in 2020, aims to study the magnetic activity of the Sun.