Japan's first ever lunar lander, HAKUTO-R, is expected to touch down on the Moon at around 16:40 GMT on April 25, Japan's private lunar exploration company ispace said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th April, 2023) Japan's first ever lunar lander, HAKUTO-R, is expected to touch down on the Moon at around 16:40 GMT on April 25, Japan's private lunar exploration company ispace said on Wednesday.
"As of April 12, 2023, the Mission 1 lander is orbiting the Moon in an elliptical orbit with an altitude of about 100 km (62 miles) at the perilune (periapsis) and about 2300 km at the apolune (apoapsis) ... At approximately 15:40 on April 25, 2023, (UTC), the lander is scheduled to begin the landing sequence from the 100 km altitude orbit ... The process will take approximately one hour," the company said in a press release.
Landing could be postponed if space conditions change, and the alternative landing dates are April 26, May 1, and May 3, according to ispace.
On December 11, US company SpaceX carried out the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket with a Japanese lunar lander from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch had been repeatedly postponed by SpaceX over technical issues.
