4 Mar, 2025

Interim Updates Provided at a Press Conference in front of the Mission Control Center

TOKYO–March 4, 2025–ispace, inc. (ispace) )(TOKYO: 9348), a global lunar exploration company, announced today that a landing date and time for the SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon Mission 2 RESILIENCE lunar lander has been set for 4:24 a.m. (JST) on Friday, June 6, 2025.

The announcement was made by Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace, at a press conference held in front of the company’s HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan.

Should conditions change, there are three alternative landing sites that are being considered with different landing dates and times for each. A decision about landing will be made in advance, but the window for landing is open from June 6 through June 8, 2025.

Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace makes the landing date announcement
during a press conference held on March 4, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan

“It’s been almost seven weeks since the RESILIENCE lander began its second journey to the Moon on January 15. Compared to Mission 1, Mission 2 is progressing as smoothly as can be expected from the moment of launch, which is proof that the mission operation specialists have made meticulous preparations. I feel that the experience and knowledge from the previous mission have been put to good use,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace. “There are five remaining mission success milestones. We believe that RESILIENCE will achieve them all with a majestic landing on the Moon and the TENACIOUS rover will begin exploration. We will work as hard as we can to make that happen.”

Interim Updates

Based on the experience gained during Mission 1, engineers throughout the organization and operators in mission control have worked to significantly improve the accuracy and precision of maneuvers during Mission 2. ispace engineers have confirmed that all seven subsystems of the lander are nominal.

During launch, it was reconfirmed that RESILIENCE’s design and structure could withstand the harsh conditions and vibrations experienced while in the launch vehicle. Upon separation, it was confirmed that all four of the landers’ legs deployed. During space flight, the thermal control and conditions have been nominal with heater consumption as expected. Propulsion systems have been stable and operated nominally, completing 6 orbital control maneuvers to date. Daily attitude control has been stable. In addition, planned propellant consumption has been nominal.

All orbit guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) sensors are nominal. Partial dynamics, guidance, navigation, and control systems have been confirmed, and future check out of the landing GNC is planned. RESILIENCE has maintained stable uplink and downlink with a future check out of the high-gain antenna planned. Solar power arrays and battery are nominal and power is within the expected budget. Finally, all onboard computers, flight software, and autonomous functions and operations are nominal.

Significantly, all of the payloads on board the lander have been confirmed as functioning without any abnormalities.

An image of the Earth taken by the RESILIENCE lunar lander on Feb. 18, 2025.

Currently, ispace is actively operating the SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon Mission 2 and has achieved 5 of the 10 mission milestones. Most recently, the RESILIENCE lunar lander successfully completed a flyby of the Moon on Feb. 15, 2025, reaching its closest point to the lunar surface at 22:43 UTC, Feb. 14, 2025. It has navigated to a point 1.1 million km from Earth.

While the RESILIENCE lander continues its journey, ispace engineers will complete trajectory control maneuvers from the Mission Control Center to direct RESILIENCE from deep space towards the Moon. Based on the current schedule, deep space maneuvers are expected to be completed on or around April 24, 2025, at which point RESILIENCE will achieve Success 6 of the Mission 2 Milestones. Subsequently, RESILIENCE is expected to enter lunar orbit on or around May 6, 2025, which will achieve Success 7. These dates are subject to change based on conditions and are provided as estimates based on current planning.

While this mission, designated as an R&D mission, is progressing on a low energy orbit resulting in a mission length of multiple months, ispace engineers are gaining extremely valuable data from orbital control maneuvers, deep space flight and systems operations that will be combined with the results of Mission 1 to inform the development of future commercial missions. Full scale commercialization operations will commence with Mission 3, which will provide direct lunar transportation services that will only require weeks to complete the transit.

Future Missions

ispace is leveraging its global presence through its three business units in Japan, the U.S., and Luxembourg, for the simultaneous development of upcoming missions. Mission 2, featuring the RESILIENCE lunar lander and led by ispace Japan, launched on Jan. 15, 2025, completed a lunar flyby on Feb. 15, 2025, and is currently traveling to the Moon. During the mission, the TENACIOUS micro rover will be deployed on the lunar surface to conduct a technological demonstration of regolith extraction as well as mobility on the lunar surface. Mission 3, debuting the APEX 1.0 lunar lander, is led by ispace-U.S. and is expected to launch in 2026. The company’s fourth mission, which will utilize the Series 3 lander, currently being designed in Japan, is scheduled to be launched by 2027.

About ispace

ispace, a global lunar exploration company with the vision, “Expand our Planet. Expand our Future.”, specializes in designing and building lunar landers and rovers. ispace 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. The company has business entities in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States with approximately 300 employees worldwide.

For more information, visit: www.ispace-inc.com and follow us on X: @ispace_inc.