Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched two private lunar landers on Wednesday (Jan 15). The landers built by US and Japanese companies left the Earth aboard a Falcon 9 rocket as a part of a rideshare to the Moon.

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The SpaceX rocket was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 01:00 local time on Wednesday (Jan 15), carrying two landers, one from America's Firefly Aerospace and the other from Japan's ispace.

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Two cost-efficient missions

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The landers share the rocket to save cost and will go separate ways once they reach the Moon’s orbit to conduct their own explorations.

Firefly's rover, Blue Space, is expected to reach the Moon in about 45 days after it is separated from the SpaceX rocket. It will then drill into the Moon’s surface to collect samples. The rover will also capture X-ray images of the Earth’s magnetic field to “advance research for future human missions on the Moon and provide insights into how space weather impacts the planet,” SpaceX said.

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On the other hand, ispace's Resilence lander would reach the Moon’s surface in about five months and will deploy a rover to explore and gather loose surface material called regolith on the Moon.

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NASA backed mission

The Moon exploration mission is backed by NASA and will be its biggest commercial delivery to the Earth’s natural satellite so far.

Texas-based Intuitive Machines became the first commercial company to land on the Moon last year. Till now only the US, the Soviet Union, China, India and Japan have been able to conduct soft landings on the Moon.

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Meanwhile, SpaceX is also conducting its seventh orbital flight test of the Starship rocket. The launch is scheduled from Texas at 16:00 local time. 

(With inputs from agencies)