2023 is going to be a busy year for Earth’s satellite. One mission — the Japanese firm ispace’s Hakuto-R lander, named for the rabbit in the Moon in Japanese mythology – is already on its way, after launching on December 19. It should arrive, after a long, low-energy loop past the Moon, in time for the Flower Moon on May 5. The Indian Space Research Organization plans to join them with the Chandrayaan-3 lander in the summer, and Roscosmos’ Luna-25 probe, which has been in planning for over a quarter-century, should arrive at the crater Boguslawsky a little later.
