ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX is back at the launch pad for another shot to send a couple of moonbound customers into space from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A Falcon 9 is carrying private Japanese company ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander, the first of a planned series of landers that if successful will make it the first commercial soft landing ever on the moon. Also on board is NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s briefcase-sized Lunar Flashlight that plans to map ice in the permanently shadowed spaces near the moon’s south pole.
Liftoff is targeted for early Sunday at 2:38 a.m. from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 with a backup window available Monday at 2:31 a.m.
