SpaceX launches two lunar landers to the moon

A new year of lunar exploration kicked off early Wednesday, when two robotic landers and a small rover began their journeys to the moon.

A new year of lunar exploration kicked off early Wednesday, when two robotic landers and a small rover began their journeys to the moon.

A SpaceX rocket lifted off at 1:11 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, launching two separate, uncrewed missions to the lunar surface.

One of those missions, developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, aims to put a lander dubbed Blue Ghost down in a region of the moon known as Mare Crisium — a 340-mile-wide basin thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact.

The other mission, run by a Japanese company called ispace, involves a lander called Resilience and “micro rover” called Tenacious. Their targeted landing site is in a region called Mare Frigoris in the moon’s far north.

It will be ispace's second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon. In 2023, its first try ended in disappointment, when its Hakuto lander unexpectedly accelerated during its descent and crashed on the lunar surface.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/spacex-launch-two-moon-landers-rcna186573

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