Two private moon landers will take flight on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January 2025.
The Japanese company ispace has announced that its second-ever moon mission will launch on the same Falcon 9 rocket that will loft Blue Ghost, a lunar lander built by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
The rocket is expected to launch from Florida’s Space Coast no earlier than mid-January. This mission marks an important milestone as it combines two distinct lunar projects into a single launch, underscoring international interest in lunar exploration.
As per a report released by ispace, the upgraded ‘Resilience’ lander, part of ispace’s Mission 2, is aimed at landing on Mare Frigoris, also known as the “Sea of Cold,” located 60.5 degrees north of the lunar equator.
This follows an earlier attempt in April 2023 by ispace’s Hakuto-R lander, which failed due to an onboard sensor issue.
The report further mentions that the resilience carries five payloads, including a water electrolyser, an experimental food-production module, and the microrover ‘Tenacious.’
The rover is expected to collect lunar soil under a NASA contract, according to reports. Resilience will take a low-energy trajectory and is anticipated to land four to five months after launch.
If everything goes according to plan, the lander will operate on the lunar surface and deploy Tenacious, which will collect moon dirt and gravel under a contract with NASA.
Firefly Aerospace’s ‘Blue Ghost’ lander is set to touch down at Mare Crisium, located 17 degrees north of the lunar equator.
According to Firefly’s mission overview, Blue Ghost will operate for a full lunar day, equivalent to 14 Earth days, before conducting imaging tasks during lunar dusk conditions.
This mission, under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme, will deliver ten science instruments and technology demonstrations.
Blue Ghost will deploy from the Falcon 9 before Resilience and reach the moon first as well, getting to lunar orbit about 45 days after launch.
If successful, these missions will join the limited achievements of private companies in lunar landings.
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To date, just one private spacecraft has ever landed safely on the moon — Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus, which pulled off the feat this past February.
