Japan's ispace set to make history with commercial lunar landing

Japanese startup ispace is set to land its Hakuto-R Mission 1 spacecraft on the moon, which would be the world's first lunar landing by a private company if successful. The M1 lander will touch down on the moon's surface after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a SpaceX rocket in December. The M1 will deploy a two-wheeled, baseball-sized rover developed by JAXA, Japanese toymaker Tomy Co, and Sony Group, as well as the United Arab Emirates' four-wheeled "Rashid" Rover. The M1 is also carrying an experimental solid-state battery made by NGK Spark Plug Co, among other objects to gauge how they perform on the moon.