SpaceX launches Japan’s first moon landing mission

Japanese lunar exploration company ispace kicked off its long-awaited first mission Sunday, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the project’s lunar lander from Florida.

“This is the beginning of a new era,” Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of Ispace, told CNBC.

The Tokyo-based company’s Mission 1 is currently on its way to the moon, and is expected to land near the end of April.

Founded over a decade ago, ispace originated as a team to contend with Google Lunar Xprize Under the name Hakuto – after the legendary Japanese white rabbit. After the cancellation of the Xprize competition, ispace has pivoted and expanded its goals, with Hakamada aiming to create an “economically viable ecosystem” around the moon, he said in a recent interview.

The company has grown steadily as it works toward that first mission, with more than 200 employees around the world – including about 50 in its US subsidiary in Denver. In addition, ispace has been steadily raising money from a wide range of investors, bringing in $237 million to date through a mix of equity and debt. Investors in ispace include Japan Development Bank, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan Airlines, and Airbus Ventures.

The ispace Mission 1 rover carries small vehicles and payloads for a number of government agencies and companies – including those from the United States, Canada, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Before launching, ispace You have identified 10 landmarks For the mission – the company has completed the first three to date: launch preparation, post-launch deployment, and then establishing a communication link. Next is maneuvering into orbit, then a one-month period of flying through space before entering lunar orbit. The milestones illustrate the complexity and difficulty of ispace’s mission, with Hakamada emphasizing his confidence in the mission, as well as noting that each milestone represents another step forward in achieving the company’s goals.

“I have 100 percent confidence in our engineering team, they did the right things to accomplish a successful moon landing,” said Hakamada.

If successful, ispace will be the first private company to land on the moon – a feat previously accomplished by global superpowers.