Today, Hakuto-R lands on the moon. Could be the first successful private moon landing.

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Today, Hakuto-R lands on the moon

Could be the first successful private moon landing

Today is the day for the Japanese space company Ispace to carry out what could be the first successful moon landing by a private company. Ispace Hakuto-R is planned to land at the Atlas crater on the moon at 5:40 p.m. Swedish time.

The M1 Program: Ispace and their moon exploration

The unmanned Hakuto-R left Earth in December last year and is part of their so-called M1 program. On board Hakuto-R are, among other things, the Japanese space agency JAXA's small rolling robot Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) and the small rover Rashid from the United Arab Emirates.

Challenges with moon landings

It is not easy to soft land on the moon, so it remains to be seen how Ispace and Hakuto-R will do. In 2019, Israeli companies SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries attempted to land the spacecraft Beresheet on the moon, which ended in a crash landing when the spacecraft did not slow down as intended during descent towards the moon.