Latest news with #TENACIOUS
India Today
07-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Japan's Resilience spacecraft enters lunar orbit, begins landing prep
Japan's private lunar lander, Resilience, has successfully entered lunar orbit, marking a major milestone for Tokyo-based ispace and the nation's ambitions in space exploration. The spacecraft completed its critical lunar orbit insertion at 2:11 am IST on May 7, 2025, after a journey spanning nearly five months and over 1.1 million kilometers through deep space. Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January, Resilience carries the TENACIOUS micro rover-designed in Luxembourg-and a suite of scientific and cultural payloads from international partners. The mission's target is Mare Frigoris, a vast plain in the Moon's northern hemisphere, with a landing attempt scheduled for June 5, 2025. The mission aims to demonstrate new technologies, collect lunar soil. (Photo: ispace) The successful orbit injection required a nine-minute main thruster burn, the longest of the mission so far, and signals the start of a month-long preparation period before the descent to the lunar surface. 'We are incredibly pleased that the RESILIENCE lander has successfully reached lunar orbit as planned today,' said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, crediting lessons learned from the company's previous attempt in 2023, which ended in a crash landing. If Resilience achieves a soft landing, ispace will become the first Japanese company-and one of only a handful of private firms globally-to land on the Moon, following recent successes by Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines. The mission aims to demonstrate new technologies, collect lunar soil samples with the TENACIOUS rover, and deliver international payloads, including a memory disk from UNESCO and a miniature artwork.
India Today
06-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Resiliance lander to enter Moon's orbit on Thursday, lunar landing on June 5
The Resilience lunar lander, developed by Japan's ispace, is set to enter lunar orbit on Thursday ahead of its scheduled landing on the Moon's surface on June 5, 2025. Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 15, 2025, Resilience carries the TENACIOUS micro rover and a suite of international payloads, including scientific experiments and cultural artifacts. The mission has already completed a deep space journey, flying past the Moon and reaching a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers from Earth before returning for its crucial lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre. As RESILIENCE makes its way back from its furthest point in Mission 2, we're starting to get excited for the next time we meet the Moon! In the meantime, we're reminiscing about lunar flyby, which took place on Feb. 15, when RESILIENCE captured this video of our lunar muse. ispace (@ispace_inc) April 4, 2025 advertisement Successfully entering lunar orbit will mark the completion of the mission's seventh milestone. The lander's target is Mare Frigoris, the 'Sea of Cold,' a vast, basaltic plain in the Moon's northern hemisphere chosen for its favorable communication conditions with Earth and continuous sunlight. The planned landing is set for June 5, with alternative sites and dates prepared should conditions change. Once on the lunar surface, the TENACIOUS rover-developed by ispace Europe-will deploy to conduct mobility and regolith extraction demonstrations. It is equipped with an HD camera and a shovel for collecting lunar soil, and will also deliver a model 'Moonhouse' artwork by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. It has reached a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers from Earth. (Photo: ispace) advertisement The lander itself will serve as a cultural artifact, carrying a UNESCO memory disk that preserves linguistic and cultural diversity in 275 languages. Resilience's payloads include a water electrolyser, a food production experiment, a deep space radiation probe, and a commemorative alloy plate modeled after a piece from the Mobile Suit Gundam UC animation. The mission shows ispace's global collaboration, with teams in Japan, the US, and Luxembourg working on future lunar projects. If successful, Resilience will further establish private industry's role in lunar exploration and open new opportunities for scientific and cultural endeavours on the Moon.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Japan's ispace set to attempt lunar landing in June
March 4 (UPI) -- Japanese lunar exploration company ispace announced Tuesday it will aim to place a lander on the moon on June 6. Founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada held a press conference yesterday to share details regarding its second lunar mission, which began on Jan. 15 with the launch of its SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon Mission 2 RESILIENCE lander. According to a press release from ispace, the mission's conditions have so far remained nominal with no technical issues, and the lander has kept a stable link connection. If the mission continues to maintain its problem-free status, RESILIENCE is expected to land on Friday, June 6 at 4:24 a.m local time. Ispace specializes in the creation of lunar rovers and landers, with the purpose of eventually creating frequent and inexpensive transportation services to the moon. Takeshi explained that so far compared to the company's first attempt to land on the moon, this second mission is "progressing as smoothly as can be expected from the moment of launch." Ispace's first mission failed with a crash into the moon on April 26, 2023. RESILIENCE is projected to enter lunar orbit around May 6. The lander already completed a successful flyby of the moon on Feb. 15. Should RESILIENCE land successfully, it will then deploy a rover named TENACIOUS, which will conduct an exploration of the area around the landing site. Ispace is also planning a third mission in 2026 featuring a newly designed lunar lander, and then a fourth mission in 2027 that will deploy a lander that is currently being designed. Takeshi said during the conference that he believes that due to "meticulous preparations" made by ispace's mission operation specialists, RESILIENCE will make a "majestic landing on the moon and the TENACIOUS rover will begin exploration. We will work as hard as we can to make that happen."
