Two lunar landers built by private companies in the US and Japan have left Earth aboard a SpaceX rocket as part of a rideshare to the Moon.
The Falcon 9 took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:09 local time (06:09 GMT) on Wednesday, carrying landers belonging to America’s Firefly Aerospace and Japan’s ispace.
The landers will eventually separate once they reach the Moon’s orbit and conduct independent explorations.
They are the latest in a growing number of commercial missions to the Moon.
Firefly’s rover, Blue Space, is expected to take about 45 days to reach the Moon, once it has separated from the SpaceX rocket.
It will then drill, collect samples and also take X-ray images of the Earth’s magnetic field to “advance research for future human missions on the Moon and provide insights into how space weather impacts the planet”, according to SpaceX.
Meanwhile, ispace’s Resilence lander will take up to five months to reach the Moon’s surface, where it will deploy a rover for exploration and attempt to scoop up loose surface material known as regolith.
Nasa is backing the endeavour, which, if successful, will be its biggest commercial delivery to the Moon so far.
Intuitive Machines last year became the first commercial outfit to put a lander on the Moon, a feat only previously accomplished by the US, the Soviet Union, China, India and Japan.
Separately, SpaceX is also conducting its seventh orbital flight test of its Starship rocket, which is due to take off from Texas at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT).
