Two New Private Spacecraft Launch to the Moon

01Two private spacecraft are on their way to the moon to carry out separate missions.

02The landers launched January 15 from the American government's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

03The private company SpaceX used its Falcon 9 launch vehicle to fly the landers into space.

04The two separated from Falcon 9 about one hour into the flight.

05Mission leaders said the launch went exactly as planned, with no problems reported.

06The trip to the moon will take some time.

07One spacecraft is expected to land on the lunar surface in early March, while the other should touch down in late May or early June.

08In February 2024, the first private spacecraft completed the first U.S.

09moon landing in more than 50 years.

10The lander, called Odysseus, was developed by the Texas-based company Intuitive Machines.

11The spacecraft experienced some technical problems, but was able to carry out several science experiments before powering down permanently on the moon in late March.

12For this current mission, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace developed Blue Ghost, one of the two landers launched.

13The other, named Resilience, belongs to Japanese company iSpace.

14Both are designed to collect data and materials to support several planned moon missions, some including astronauts, in coming years.

15The Blue Ghost lander is targeting a landing site near a volcanic structure called Montslautré.

16It is a 480-kilometer basin that sits in the northeast quarter of the near side of the moon.

17The American Space Agency, NASA, says the two-meter-tall Blue Ghost is carrying 10 NASA science and technology instruments.

18They aim to gather valuable scientific data studying Earth's nearest neighbor, the agency said.

19NASA's NASA's Artemis program aims to send astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

20The next planned flight in that program is Artemis 2, which is set to launch in April 2026.

21In that mission, four astronauts will fly NASA's Orion spacecraft more than 400,000 kilometers on a trip around the moon.

22Nicola Fox is the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

23She said in a statement, the agency's cooperation with private companies is a critical part of bringing humanity back to the moon.

24Fox added that NASA chose the new experiments partly because of information learned from NASA's Apollo space program, which began in the 1960s.

25She said the current mission seeks to ensure the safety and health of our future science instruments, spacecraft, and, most importantly, our astronauts on the lunar surface.

26Blue Ghost's equipment includes a tool to collect dirt and another to dig a hole for measuring temperatures below the lunar surface.

27The spacecraft is also carrying a device built to measure light reflections to be used with lasers to better measure the distance between Earth and the moon.

28In addition, Blue Ghost is carrying instruments to examine the structure and density of areas beneath the lunar surface.

29Other equipment will seek to capture X-ray images of the edge of Earth's magnetic field.

30The iSpace Lander Resilience is carrying an exploring vehicle called a rover to the moon.

31The 5-kilogram rover is designed to collect lunar soil and other materials from the surface.

32The 6-kilogram rover is designed to collect lunar surface.

33Resilience is also carrying equipment and instruments to complete several experiments for Japanese companies and other organizations.

34One of the experiments will test an electrolysis device designed to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen.

35Such a device could help future astronauts better use water resources on the moon and produce rocket fuel.

36Other experiments set for the Resilience mission include food production tests and the deployment of a deep space radiation probe.

37The instrument is designed to collect detailed measurements of ionizing radiation in space.

38NASA has said it is paying $101 million to Firefly for the mission and another $44 million for the experiments.

39Officials from iSpace did not report how much its mission would cost.

40It is the second moon mission for iSpace.

41During the last one, Japan's space agency JAXA successfully launched its SLIM spacecraft to the moon in January 2024.

42But the lander touched down imperfectly, causing some communication and power problems.

43However, Japanese space officials reported they had stayed in communication with SLIM through late April.

44During this time, they said the spacecraft was able to collect valuable data about the landing and surrounding area.

45I'm Brian Lynn.

46I'm Brian Lynn.