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WASHINGTON – A Japanese company that originated in the former Google Lunar X Prize competition announced on September 26 that it had chosen SpaceX to launch two missions to the moon in 2020 and 2021.
As part of this agreement, ispace will fly two HAKUTO-R missions, one orbiter and one lander, as secondary payloads on SpaceX Falcon 9 launches. The orbiter should be launched in a window that will open in the middle -2020 and the lander in mid-2021. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
In an interview, ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said the company chose SpaceX over other unidentified launch providers because of the price, but also because of SpaceX's high theft rate.
"Because we aim to provide a frequent lunar transport service, starting relationships with SpaceX is very important," he said. "SpaceX offers a large number of launch opportunities and this partnership can foster future collaboration with SpaceX."
The first HAKUTO-R mission will put a spacecraft with a total weight of 550 kilograms into orbit around the moon. The second mission will be a lander, weighing 1,400 kilograms, including a small rover. Both are intended to demonstrate ispace's capabilities in providing payloads to the moon for future commercial customers.
"The first two missions are technology demonstration missions," he said. "The goal is to validate that our technology is able to work on the moon. Next, we want to plan a series of lunar commercial transportation service missions by our lander. He does not have a precise timetable for these follow-up missions, he said, which will depend on the timing and success of the first two.
These first two missions, however, could carry commercial payloads. Hakamada said that he could not discuss specific opportunities for these missions. "We have already had several discussions," he said.
Both spacecraft are currently under development, having recently completed a preliminary design review. Hakamada said that ispace has attracted a number of external critics, including from the Japanese space agency JAXA, as well as from Europe and the United States, who concluded that the company was on the right track. The next step, the critical review of the design, is scheduled for early 2019.
Work on the HAKUTO-R missions is funded by the $ 90 million space raised in a round of funding for Series A last December. "For future missions, we will have to raise more money to provide a sustainable commercial transport service," he said, as the space will attempt to meet the first successful missions once. The company also expects revenues from commercial payloads and sponsorships.
The company currently has more than 60 employees, mainly at its Tokyo headquarters where the spacecraft will be built, as well as an office in Luxembourg that carries out commercial development and research work. The company also has a small office in the United States that currently has only one employee, Hakamada said.
The use of the name HAKUTO-R for the first missions brings us back to the X Prize competition, when the company, competing under the name of Team Hakuto, tried to fly rovers on the moon. While the contest ended, he reached an agreement to pilot a rover on a landing gear mission developed by the Indus Indian team, but this lander was not ready to be launched before the expiry of the price in March. .
As Team Indus continues to work on its lunar lander, Hakamada said there was no plan to fly a spacecraft on this mission, but did not rule out future collaboration. "The contract with Team Indus was only about the Lunar X Prize competition," he said. "If Team Indus can offer us something, we are very open to any form of partnership in the future."
Hakamada noted that the "R" in HAKUTO-R means "reboot". "Hakuto's mission has not failed. He is still waiting for success, "he said. "We restarted all the activities after the Lunar X Prize competition and we will be successful this time."
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