A private Japanese lunar lander made it to the Moon’s orbit on May 6, a month before its scheduled landing on the surface, Tokyo’s own space exploration company ispace said.
“The countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun,” the company said, sharing its hopes to be the first Japanese company to make a successful landing on the Moon’s surface, AP News reported.
Launched on Jan. 15 by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the lander — named the Resilience — flew alongside the U.S.-based Firefly Aerospace’s own lander Blue Ghost to the Moon. The latter landed in March, becoming the first ever private spacecraft to land on the surface without crashing. This was followed by another spacecraft by fellow American company, Intuitive Machines, but it tipped over in a crater.
“First and foremost, we are extremely pleased that the Resilience lander successfully reached lunar orbit as planned,” Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace, said in a statement. “We will continue to proceed with careful operations and thorough preparations to ensure the success of the lunar landing.”
The Resilience is ispace’s second lander to try and land on the Moon. The first tried to land on a flat plain on the surface in May 2023, but had its trajectory changed to a crater before its launch. The crater’s slopes confused the lander’s built-in software, forcing the spacecraft into a free-fall.
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According to Ryo Ujiie, chief technology officer at ispace, it fell more than 300 feet (100 meters) per second before crashing into the surface.
The new craft is lighter and smaller than the first, with software rewired to better expect any disruptions upon landing, ispace says.
“We took a very careful approach to the software,” Hakamada said. “And we improved the robustness of the system from last time.”
The Resilience plans to land on June 5 within Mare Frigoris, a plain of basalt on the Moon’s northern hemisphere — also known as the “Sea of Cold.” Stored in the lander is a mini rover designed to dig up dirt of the Moon for study and experimentation.
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Aspirations of a space explorer
CEO Takeshi Hakamada had dreamed of space exploration since he was just a child, and enjoyed science fiction.
“For me, the first time I really engaged with space was through ‘Star Wars,’” Hakamada said in an interview with The Japan Times. “I was around 9 or 10 when I saw the original trilogy on TV. I was really inspired by the cool starships and robots. If I look back, that was definitely the spark for me.”
Pursuing his dreams through aerospace engineering, he earned an undergraduate degree at Nagoya University. Then, he acquired his master’s at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he attended a lecture from a test pilot at Scaled Composites.
“I realized that while the technology was already there, commercializing space wasn’t just about engineering,” Hakamada said. “You also needed business management and finance skills.”
Founded in 2010, ispace is pushing for efforts to build a sustainable Earth-Moon ecosystem by leveraging lunar water resources to develop space infrastructure. Aiming to spark a new space-based economy, the company stresses the importance of integrating technology with finance, policy, science, and environmental stewardship.
By taking a more agile, risk-tolerant approach than traditional government programs, ispace hopes to accelerate innovation and attract global stakeholders to reshape the future of space development.
Other space endeavors
Earlier in March, Japanese space startup Dymon Co. cancelled their planned lunar exploration using its compact rover, ending its mission. The rover, Yaoki, boarded Intuitive Machine Inc.’s lander Athena, which was later marked as dead shortly after landing.
Before shutting down, the rover photographed a crater and sent data on the Moon’s temperature, Dymon said.
Elsewhere, satellite maker Axelspace, also based in Tokyo, is planning to list its shares by around June, sources said. It would become the newest space startup in the country to surge into Japan’s capital markets.
The company is expected to see its initial public offering (IPO) approved by the Tokyo Stock Exchange in late May. Should it succeed, it would be the fifth listing of a Japanese space company over the last two years.
Japanese researchers at Kyoto University worked with homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry to build the world’s first wooden satellite, LignoSat, which was then launched into space in November 2024 to research the possibilities of using wood in space exploration.
