One rocket carrying two spacecraft for two missions to the moon for two private companies, one American and the other Japanese, took off today from the Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of the United States, as scenes from a live broadcast of the operation showed.
The two-spacecraft loaded with scientific instruments were sent into space, by the rocket “Falcon 9” of the American company “SpaceX”, owned by billionaire Elon Musk.
The rocket successfully launched, Wednesday, at 01: 11 AM local time (06: 11 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the southeastern United States
The rocket includes the space robot “Blue Ghost” Blue Ghost, developed by the company “Firefly Aerospace” Firefly Aerospace for the US space agency (NASA), and the space robot “Relief” Resilience of the Japanese company “ispace”.
Repeat achievement
The two agencies hope to repeat the achievement achieved by the American company “intuitive machines”, after its success in sending a spacecraft to the lunar surface in early 2024, in a world-wide precedent for a private company.
Before that, only a handful of countries, starting with the Soviet Union in 1966, managed to complete this risky maneuver.
This will be the first attempt of Firefly Aerospace, and the second for ispace, whose spacecraft failed to land safely on the moon in 2023.
