SpaceX conducted a rare lunar launch early morning today after it launched the Japanese company ispace Inc’s lunar lander from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch was SpaceX’s second lunar launch of the year and the first for a lunar lander. It made the firm one of the first American companies to launch a lunar lander after its rival United Launch Alliance (ULA) is yet to launch the Vulcan rocket with Pitsburgh-based firm Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. ipace’s Hakuto-R lander launched on the Falcon 9 rocket at 2:38 am eastern time, and the first stage successfully separated from the second stage and landed on land soon after.
SpaceX Conducts Another Moon Launch In 2022 As All Eyes On Starship
Today’s launch came within days after the Falcon 9 had launched 40 satellites for the British firm OneWeb on Thursday – with the launch itself providing some of the best visuals of the rocket this year. Due to its time, the Falcon 9 lifted off at sunset, and spectacular coverage from the ground tracking camera showed in detail the different phases of the launch, such as stage separation, boost back burn, reaction control thrust firing and another land landing.
The Hakuo-R launched at night, and the best views of the event were the boost back burn of the Falcon 9 first stage. After it separates from the second stage, the rocket immediately changes its orientation and fires its engines to ensure that it does not crash into the second stage. This was one of the first errors that SpaceX encountered with a rocket in its history, with its third launch of the Falcon 1 rocket seeing the first and second stages colliding mid air.
Boost back for today’s launch, which took place at night, created a remarkable plume of flames that lit up the frame and contrasted sharply with the dark sky in the background. This was completely different from the previous launch since ambient light also made the rocket visible.
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The launch makes SpaceX one of the few companies in the industry that has launched a lunar payload this year and the only one to have done it twice. Its previous lunar mission was for the Korean space agency, which launched a lunar orbiter in August. Additionally, SpaceX is joined by RocketLab in having conducted a lunar mission this year, with the latter’s CAPSTONE satellite for NASA launched in June. CAPSTONE is part of NASA’s Artemis program, as it will enable the space agency to study different orbits for the planned Gateway space station. This space station will serve as a docking point for future astronauts, as they will travel to it on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and then shift to SpaceX’s Starship for a lunar landing.
Starship is slated to conduct its orbital test flight soon, and by the looks of things so far, this crucial test will take place next year. The rocket will be one of the largest in the world and it will also fly a private crew to a lunar orbit as part of Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s efforts to stiumalate creativity on Earth. SpaceX has stepped up the pace on Starship development recently, as it has started testing multiple engines for full durations in a slow buildup to a full system static fire.
Today’s landing marked the 155th time that SpaceX has landed a rocket booster, and the company will also reuse its fairings. The payload separated from the second stage close to an hour after liftoff, with a NASA ‘flashlight’ separating soon afterward.
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