A private company, Japan's ispace Inc, is set to land on the Moon later today, with support from the UK's Goonhilly Earth Station.
If successful, it would be the first-ever private company to successfully land on the lunar surface, more than 50 years since the last NASA Moon landing.
The Hakuto-R mission is scheduled to being the landing sequence at 3.40pm Universal Time today (4.40pm in the UK, 11.40am in New York) and land roughly an hour later to deliver a small rover vehicle and other payloads to the lunar surface.
We’ve received another incredible photo from the camera onboard our Mission 1 lander!
Seen here is the lunar Earthrise during solar eclipse, captured by the lander-mounted camera at an altitude of about 100 km from the lunar surface. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/pNSI4lPnux
— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 24, 2023
In its landing sequence the spacecraft, which has been in elliptical lunar orbit since last month, will perform a braking burn, firing its main propulsion system to start dropping the 100km to the Moon's surface.
With the event intended to be live-streamed online, the spacecraft will then adjust its attitude and reduce its velocity to ensure a soft landing on the lunar surface, using pre-set commands.
The primary landing site is Atlas Crater, located in the northeastern quadrant of the Moon, which the company said meets the technical specifications of the lander technology demonstration mission, the scientific exploration objectives for the UAE's lunar rover mission, as well as the mission requirements of its other customers.
As part of the overall mission, the Rashid Rover is being carried to the lunar surface for the UAE's MBR Space Centre, where ispace is also providing wired communication and power to allow the rover's "cruise phase" on the Moon, where its mission includes numerous scientific tests.
The European Space Agency is providing communication between the spacecraft and ispace's teams on Earth throughout the mission, under a commercial contract to provide the services of three deep-space antennas in Spain, Western Australia and Argentina.
Goonhilly in the UK and Estrack stations have been following the lander as it ventured out into deep space and back again on a sweeping trajectory designed to reduce the amount of fuel it needs to carry.
If anything happens, the lander, which was launched in December in a SpaceX Falcon rocket, has three alternative landing sites and depending on the site, the landing date may change. Alternative landing dates, depending on the operational status, are 26 April, 1 May and 3 May.
Ispace, which floated on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in recent weeks, was founded in Europe 2008 to compete in Google's US$20mln Lunar X Prize, but spun off its Japanese arm a few years later.
Founder Takeshi Hakamada has a vision of what he calls "expand the human living sphere into space," with aim that the company builds "an economic zone in the space between the Earth and the Moon" by commercialising the lunar surface.
It could be followed to the Moon by US-based pair Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic.
Astrobotic's much-delayed mission to carry its Peregrine lander to the Moon has booked a place aboard the maiden launch from Vulcan Centaur rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), the joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, set for May 4.
If that ULA launch is delayed, Astrobotic may be beaten by Intuitive, which has a place on a SpaceX Falcon rocket for June.
If it never gets off the ground, Astrobotic has booked place on board SpaceX rockets for its second lunar lander, carrying NASA's VIPER in late 2024, and a third lander mission, going to the Moon's south pole in 2026.
*** Update: Adds details on timing, lunar rivals ***