ispace, a global lunar exploration company, announced that the RESILIENCE lunar lander has completed all orbital maneuvers while in lunar orbit and is now being prepared for its landing attempt on June 6, 2025. This marks the completion of the Success 8 milestone of Mission 2, “SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon.” RESILIENCE conducted a lunar orbital control maneuver at 5:27 p.m. JST (08:27 UTC) on May 28, 2025, to move into a circular orbit around the Moon by the mission operation plan.
The operation required an engine burn of approximately 10 minutes, the longest to date on Mission 2. Since then, the lander has been in a 100 km orbit around the Moon and completes a full orbit every 2 hours. After RESILIENCE completed the orbital control maneuver, ispace engineers in the Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan, worked to confirm the precise orbit in advance of the landing sequence.
The RESILIENCE lander, which reached lunar orbit on May 7, 2025 (JST), orbited the moon in an elliptical orbit with a perilune (closest point to the moon) altitude of approximately 70 km and an apolune (farthest point from the moon) altitude of approximately 5,800 km. After performing three orbital control maneuvers, it reached a circular orbit around the moon at an altitude of approximately 100 km.
A lunar landing is scheduled for no earlier than June 5, 2025 (UTC) (June 6, 2025, JST). The RESILIENCE lander is scheduled to begin descent from its current circular orbit. During the descent phase, the lander will automatically fire its main propulsion system to gradually decelerate and adjust its attitude, with the goal of achieving a soft landing on the lunar surface.
“Having completed eight of 10 mission milestones, RESILIENCE is now ready to attempt a historic landing on the Moon, carrying not only the payloads of our customers but also the hopes of our employees, their families, our partners and all of our supporters,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace. “We have leveraged the operational experience gained in Mission 1 and during this current voyage to the Moon, and we are confident in our preparations for the success of the lunar landing.”
Landing Event Live Stream Details
ispace will host a global live stream event with coverage of RESILIENCE’s landing attempt on the Moon on June 6, 2025 (JST) (June 5, 2025, depending on location). The coverage will be broadcast in Japanese with English translation provided.
When:
- Friday, June 6, 2025, JST
- Livestream begins: 3:15 am JST (18:15 UTC) (tentative)
- Landing: 4:24 am JST (19:24 UTC)
Links:
- English: www.ispace-inc.com/landing
- Japanese: https://ispace-inc.com/chakuriku
Before the lunar orbit insertion, RESILIENCE completed all deep space orbital maneuvers on April 24, 2025, at 10:00 UTC, returning the lander from deep space near the Moon to complete the orbit injection. At its furthest distance, RESILIENCE was 1.1 million kilometers from Earth. Before that, RESILIENCE completed a lunar flyby, verifying operation of the main propulsion system, as well as the related guidance, control, and navigation system. Following the flyby, the lander continued its deep space journey, spending approximately two months in a low-energy transfer orbit.
RESILIENCE was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:11:39 UTC, Jan. 15, 2025, and was successfully deployed from the rocket at 7:44:24 UTC. The RESILIENCE lander has completed the Earth orbit as well as the lunar flyby, known as Success 5. It has completed the low-energy transfer orbit, with completion of all deep space and lunar orbit maneuvers is preparing for the landing sequence.
Mission 2 Milestones
ispace has released a transparent set of criteria known as Mission 2 Milestones between launch and landing and aims to achieve the success criteria established for each of these milestones. The results from this mission as part of the HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program will be weighed and evaluated against the criteria, and lessons learned will be incorporated into future missions already in development.
Mission 2 Payloads
On board the RESILIENCE lunar lander are commercial customer payloads, including:
- Water electrolyzer equipment: From Takasago Thermal Engineering Co.
- Food production experiment: A self-contained module from Euglena Co.
- Deep space radiation probe: Developed by the Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan
- Commemorative alloy plate: Developed by Bandai Namco Research Institute, Inc., and modeled after “Charter of the Universal Century” from the animation Mobile Suit Gundam UC
- TENACIOUS micro rover: Developed by ispace-EUROPE, this rover will explore the landing site, collect lunar regolith, and relay data back to the lander. It will be equipped with a forward-mounted HD camera and a shovel.
- Moonhouse: A model house by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg that will be mounted on the rover.
The RESILIENCE lander will serve as a cultural artifact, carrying a UNESCO memory disk that preserves linguistic and cultural diversity.
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, is led by ispace Japan and was launched on Jan. 15, 2025. It is currently scheduled to land on the Moon on June 6, 2025 (JST). During the mission, the TENACIOUS micro rover, developed by ispace Europe SA, is set to be deployed on the lunar surface to conduct a technological demonstration of regolith extraction as well as mobility on the lunar surface. Team Draper Commercial Mission 1 is also known as ispace’s Mission 3. Mission 3, debuting the APEX 1.0 lunar lander, is expected to launch in 2027. The company’s fourth mission, which will utilize the Series 3 lander, currently being designed in Japan, is scheduled to be launched by 2027.
