December 14, 2022: -On Sunday, Japanese lunar exploration company ispace started its long-anticipated first mission, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which launches the venture’s lunar lander from Florida.

“This is the beginning of a recent era,” ispace founder and C.E.O. Takeshi Hakamada stated.

The Tokyo-based firm’s Mission 1 is now on its mission towards the moon, with a landing expected close to the end of April.

Founded over a decade ago, ispace started as a team competed for the Google Lunar Xprize from the word Hakuto following a mythological Japanese white rabbit. After the Xprize competition was cancelled, ispace pivoted and expanded its goals with Hakamada, which aims to create “an viable ecosystem” around the moon, he stated in a recent interview.

The firm has developed steadily as it works toward this mission, with over 200 employees worldwide, including nearly 50 at its U.S. subsidiary in Denver. Moreover, ispace has steadily increased funds from a wide range of investors, which brings in $237 million through a mixture of equity and debt. The investors of ispace include the growth Bank of Japan, Suzuki Motor, Airbus Ventures and Japan Airlines.

The ispace Mission 1 lander carries rovers and payloads for several government agencies and companies, including the U.S., Canada, Japan, and the U.A.E.

Before the launch, ispace outlined ten crossroads for the mission, with the company delivering completed the first three, Preparation for launch, deployment following the launch, and then establishing a communication link. Next is to manoeuvre in rotation, and then one month flying through space before coming into the moon’s orbit. The milestones demonstrate the complexity and problems of ispace’s mission, with Hakamada emphasising both his confidence in the mission and noting that separately represents one more step toward the company’s goals.

“I have 100% trust in our engineering group; they have been making the right things to complete our prosperous which lands on the lunar surface,” Hakamada stated.

If successful, ispace would be the initial private firm to land on the moon, a stunt previously perpetrated by global superpowers.