Page 5 - Spec Tech Vol 1 Issue 10
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SpaceX launches Japanese lander, UAE
rover to the moon
Image Credit: SpaceX
A private Japanese moon lander carrying a into a near-rectilinear halo orbit — the same
United Arab Emirates (UAE) rover, among path that will be occupied by Gateway, the small
other payloads, launched early Sunday space station that NASA plans to build as part of
morning (Dec. 11) from Cape its Artemis moon program.
Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Artemis aims to establish a sustainable human
The Hakuto-R lander lifted off atop presence on and around Earth's nearest
a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 2:38 a.m. EST neighbor, and Lunar Flashlight could aid that
(0738 GMT), kicking off the first mission for effort: The cubesat will hunt for water ice in
Tokyo-based company ispace. If all goes shadowed craters near the moon's south pole,
according to plan, Hakuto-R will make a soft the planned site of an Artemis base.
lunar landing next spring — the first ever for a "We are bringing a literal flashlight to the moon
Japanese-built spacecraft.
— shining lasers into these dark craters to look
"This is a very important moment," ispace for definitive signs of water ice covering the
founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told upper layer of lunar regolith," Barbara Cohen,
Space.com late last month, referring to the Lunar Flashlight principal investigator at NASA's
launch and the rest of ispace's Mission 1. "It Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
is opening a door for the commercial cislunar Maryland, said in a prelaunch statement.
industry."
"I'm excited to see our mission contribute to our
The rocket's first stage came back for a scientific understanding of where water ice is on
landing at Cape Canaveral just over eight the moon and how it got to be there," Cohen
minutes after launch. The Falcon 9's upper added.
stage deployed Hakuto-R as planned about Hakuto-R, the main payload on Sunday's
47 minutes after liftoff, then ejected a tiny launch, will also take a long and looping trek to
NASA moon probe called Lunar Flashlight six the moon. The lander is expected to touch down
minutes later.
inside Atlas Crater, which is located on the
The briefcase-sized Lunar Flashlight will then southeastern edge of the moon's Mare Frigoris
make its own way to the moon, a roughly ("Sea of Cold"), in April 2023.
three-month trip that will end with insertion
Space Explorer 2022 5
