Early on Tuesday morning (Jan. 15), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent Blue Ghost and Resilience — lunar landers built by Firefly Aerospace and the Tokyo-based company ispace, respectively — into the final frontier from Florida's Space Coast.

The Japanese company will attempt its second landing on the Moon after it failed to do so in April 2023. Named Mission 2, it includes the HAKUTO-R lander Resilience that will be launched on SpaceX's Falcon 9 from Florida carrying a tiny rover called Tenacious.

US company Firefly Aerospace said Tuesday it is aiming to launch a lander to the Moon next week under an experimental NASA program that partners with the commercial sector to reduce costs.Firefly Aerospace was awarded a $93 million contract in 2021 under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.