The Japanese private start-up iSpace is scheduled to launch the Hakuto-R from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA at 07:38 GMT, after being delayed twice due to inspections of the SpaceX9 rocket carrying the vehicle.
The iSpace vehicle aims to put a small satellite of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in orbit around the moon to search for water deposits before it lands in the Atlas crater, reports a local Arabic daily quoting Reuters.
The M1 lander will deploy the UAE’s four-wheeled Rashid Explorer, two robotic probes and a two-wheeled device the size of a baseball from the Japanese Aerospace Agency.
The national space agencies of the United States, Russia and China have landed on the moon in the past 50 years, but no company has done so.
The success of the mission would also be a milestone in space cooperation between Japan and the United States at a time when China has become increasingly competitive in space and the use of Russian rockets to launch spacecraft is no longer available in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
