The first private vehicle to land on the moon could be Japanese and Japan could become the fourth country to have a moon landing, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.
In fact, the arrival on lunar soil of the Hakuto-R lander, managed by the private company ispace, is expected at 18.40 Italian time.
The expected point for the moon landing is the crater Atlas, in the north-eastern part of the Moon.
It happens four years after the failed attempt to land on the moon by the Israeli private mission Beresheet.
Launched in December 2022 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, since March 21 the vehicle has been in a circular orbit about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface.
On board it carries the small Rashid rover from the United Arab Emirates, an artificial intelligence system from the Canadian company Mission Control and the imaging system from the Canadian company Canadensys Aerospace is also Canadian.
Among the mission partners is the European Space Agency, which provides communications support.
The expected duration for the landing maneuver is about an hour.
The vehicle will engage its main propulsion system to decelerate, then adjust its attitude using a series of pre-set commands to progressively reduce speed and altitude,
Hakuto-R M1 is the first mission of the ispace Hakuto program, which takes its name from the white rabbit that according to Japanese mythology would live on the moon.
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