'Double moonshot' launch highlights global race to the moon
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday, sending two commercial moon landers into space.
One lander is the Resilience, made by Japanese company ispace. It's ispace's second attempt at a moon landing, after a first try in 2023 failed due to an altitude miscalculation.
The other lander, named Blue Ghost, is the first by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
According to an ispace executive, Resilience is carrying $16 million worth of customer missions and six payloads in total, including an in-house "Micro Rover" that will collect lunar samples.
Firefly's Blue Ghost aims to reach the moon 45 days after launch - around March 2. It's carrying 11 payloads from a range of customers, most of them funded by NASA.
NASA's move to fund public-private missions, like Firefly's Blue Ghost, is aimed at studying the moon's surface and stimulating private lunar demand, before the agency sends humans there through its Artemis program.
NASA / RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY - ROSCOSMOS / REUTERS / TV TOKYO
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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday, sending two commercial moon landers into space.
One lander is the Resilience, made by Japanese company ispace. It's ispace's second attempt at a moon landing, after a first try in 2023 failed due to an altitude miscalculation.
The other lander, named Blue Ghost, is the first by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
According to an ispace executive, Resilience is carrying $16 million worth of customer missions and six payloads in total, including an in-house "Micro Rover" that will collect lunar samples.
Firefly's Blue Ghost aims to reach the moon 45 days after launch - around March 2. It's carrying 11 payloads from a range of customers, most of them funded by NASA.
NASA's move to fund public-private missions, like Firefly's Blue Ghost, is aimed at studying the moon's surface and stimulating private lunar demand, before the agency sends humans there through its Artemis program.
NASA / RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY - ROSCOSMOS / REUTERS / TV TOKYO
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#TheManilaTimes
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#nasa
#resilience
#blueghost
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NewsTranscript
00:003, 2, 1, ignition.
00:03SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday,
00:08sending two commercial moon landers into space.
00:11It's an unusual double moonshot launch
00:13that highlights the global rush to explore the lunar surface.
00:18One lander is the Resilience, made by Japanese company iSpace.
00:22It's iSpace's second attempt at a moon landing,
00:25after a first try in 2023 failed due to an altitude miscalculation.
00:31The other lander, named Blue Ghost,
00:33is the first by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
00:37Firefly is now the third company to launch a moon lander
00:40under NASA's public-private Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
00:45Countries and private companies worldwide
00:48have been aiming for the moon in recent years.
00:50They have an eye on its potential to host astronaut bases,
00:54as well as possible resources that could be mined for in-space applications.
01:00It's turning Earth's natural satellite
01:02into a stage for national prestige and geopolitical competition,
01:06with echoes of the Cold War-era space race.
01:10According to an iSpace executive,
01:12Resilience is carrying $16 million worth of customer missions and six payloads in total,
01:19including an in-house micro-rover that will collect lunar samples.
01:23The lander is expected to touch down on the moon's surface around May to June,
01:28after taking an energy-efficient route.
01:31Firefly's Blue Ghost aims to reach the moon 45 days after launch, around March 2.
01:37It's carrying 11 payloads from a range of customers, most of them funded by NASA.
01:43The U.S. space agency has a goal to send humans back to the moon
01:47for the first time since 1972 by 2027, though that will likely be pushed back.
01:54While China plans to put its own crews on the lunar surface by 2030,
01:58following a series of robotic missions.
02:01NASA's move to fund public-private missions like Firefly's Blue Ghost is aimed at studying
02:06the moon's surface and stimulating private lunar demand before the agency sends humans
02:12there through its Artemis program.
02:14But it faces potential changes with the incoming administration of Donald Trump.
02:19The president-elect has largely sided with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's vision to focus heavily on Mars.
02:49you