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“Our first mission will lay the groundwork for unleashing the Moon’s potential and transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system,” the startup’s CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
So far only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n
The ispace mission is the first of a program called Hakuto-R, which means “white rabbit” in Japanese.<\/p>\n
The company said its lunar lander was expected to touch down on the visible side of the Moon in April 2023 — the Year of the Rabbit in the Japanese zodiac.<\/p>\n
Measuring just over two by 2.5 meters, the spacecraft has a payload that includes a 10-kilogram rover built by the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
The Gulf country is a newcomer to the space race but sent a probe into Mars’ orbit last year. If the rover, named Rashid, successfully lands, it will be the Arab world’s first Moon mission.<\/p>\n
UAE Vice-President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum celebrated the launch as “part of the UAE’s ambitious space program” in a tweet on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“Our goal is to transfer knowledge, develop our capabilities, and leave a scientific footprint in human history,” he said.<\/p>\n
The UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre said a signal from the spacecraft had successfully been received by ground control.<\/p>\n
Hakuto was one of five finalists in Google’s Lunar XPrize competition to land a rover on the Moon before a 2018 deadline, which passed without a winner.<\/p>\n
The ispace lunar lander is also carrying two robots produced by Japan’s space agency and a disc with the song “SORATO” by Japanese rock band Sakanaction, which was originally written in support of the Google competition.<\/p>\n
Israeli organization SpaceIL, another finalist in the contest, failed in April 2019 to become the first privately-funded mission to land on the Moon, after its lander crashed into the surface while attempting to land.<\/p>\n
ispace, which has just 200 employees, has said it “aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon.”<\/p>\n
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