Hakuto-R Lander

“HAKUTO-R” is the Program Name for ispace’s first two Lunar missions (Mission 1 & Mission 2). Mission 1 will perform a soft landing near Lacus Mortis in 2021. In 2023, Mission 2 will perform a soft landing and the deployment of a rover to explore the lunar surface. For both missions, ispace has secured launch contracts as secondary payloads on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

"HAKUTO" means "white rabbit" in Japanese. Based on legendary folklore in Japan, it is said that a white rabbit lives on the Moon. This was the inspiration for the name of Team HAKUTO, one of the 5 finalists in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition—a race to accomplish the first private lunar exploration. Managed by ispace, supported by sponsors and a large passionate crew of volunteers, HAKUTO competed in the race for the greater part of the past decade. Ultimately, there was no winner in the competition. However, six months after the competition ended, ispace brought back the "HAKUTO" name as the Program Name for its first two lunar missions. Thus, the "R" stands for "Reboot" in the spirit of re-energizing our motivation and drive toward our goal.

The HAKUTO-R program is not only the world’s first commercial lunar exploration program, but it is also a vehicle for companies on Earth to access new business opportunities on the Moon. Companies have the opportunity to leverage our missions for R&D and promotion of their lunar business endeavors.