Japan startup targets June 6 moon landing

Japanese startup Ispace on Tuesday set a June 6 target touchdown date for its moon lander, following the success of its rocket “rideshare” buddy, a spacecraft from a U.S. firm.

Ispace’s unmanned Resilience lander was launched in January on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket together with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost — which aced its lunar landing on Sunday.

Blue Ghost is only the second private mission to achieve the milestone, and the first to do so upright after a separate U.S. company’s lander toppled over on arrival.