SpaceX rocket launches private missions to the Moon

Two lunar landers built by private US and Japanese companies have left Earth on a SpaceX rocket as part of a shared journey to the Moon.

Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:09 a.m. (06:09 GMT) on Wednesday, carrying parcels from America’s Firefly Aerospace and Japan’s ispace.

The landers will separate when they finally reach lunar orbit and conduct independent exploration.

They are the latest in a growing number of commercial missions to the moon.

Firefly’s rover, Blue Space, will take about 45 days to reach the Moon after separating from the SpaceX rocket.

It will then drill, collect samples and even take X-ray images of Earth’s magnetic field “to advance research for future human missions to the Moon and to learn how space weather affects the planet,” according to SpaceX.

Meanwhile, ispace’s Resilence lander will take five months to reach the Moon’s surface, where it will attempt to probe and collect loose surface material known as regolith.

Nasa is backing the effort, which if successful will be the largest commercial mission to the Moon to date.

It became Intuitive Machines last year The first commercial lunar landing suita feat previously accomplished only by the US, the Soviet Union, China, India and Japan.

Separately, SpaceX is also conducting the seventh orbital flight test of its Starship rocket, which is due to lift off from Texas at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT).