The first private lander will be on the surface of the Moon (PICTURES-VIDEO)  

With the help of SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch the first private lunar lander from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 rocket. The Japanese-made Hakuto-R lander will be launched today at 10:30 Greek time. It should be noted that until today only the USA, Russia and China have managed to land a robot on the surface of the Moon.

The lander is expected to land on the moon in April 2023 in Atlas Crater. Its size is 2×2.5 meters and it carries a 10 kg rover, the Rashid , which was built by the United Arab Emirates.

We have accomplished so much in the six short years since we started planning the project in 2016. – Takeshi Hakamada, CEO ispace

Hakuto is one of five finalists in the international Google Lunar XPrize competition, a program that asked companies and organizations to land a rover on the moon before 2018. The competition ended without a winner, but some of the projects continued their development. Another finalist, Israel’s SpaceIL, failed in April 2019 to become the first private company to land a spacecraft when it collided with the surface of the Moon on its way to land.