Sunday was a landmark day for both commercial and public space ventures, with NASA’s Orion capsule returning to Earth just hours after the launch of a privately funded and built lunar lander by Japanese company ispace.
The two missions — the conclusion of NASA’s Artemis I and ispace’s Mission 1 — are some of the clearest signs yet that the moon will likely become a permanent site for scientific missions and commercial activity.
ispace lander makes its way to the lunar surface
Ispace launched Mission 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on early Sunday morning. If successful, the mission will be the first to put a fully privately funded and built lander on the lunar surface.
