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'Major milestone' crossed: Lander carrying UAE's Rashid Rover on course to Moon

ispace announces successful completion of first orbital control manoeuvre

Published: Thu 15 Dec 2022, 10:47 PM

Updated: Thu 15 Dec 2022, 10:52 PM

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ispace has announced that it has successfully complete the first orbital control manoeuvre, setting the lander on a course towards the moon and verifying operation of the main propulsion system, as well as the related guidance, navigation, and control system.

By completing these activities, “Success 4” of the Mission 1 Milestones has been achieved.

The lander continues to maintain a stable attitude and power supply while completing the first orbit control manoeuvrer at 12:00 on December 15 (Japan Standard Time).

The lander is currently at a distance of approximately 550,000 km from the Earth and it will reach 1.4 million km on approximately January 20 — the farthest point from Earth during Mission 1.

After reaching the farthest point, the lander is planned to carry out an orbital control manoeuvrer, setting it on its way towards a lunar orbit. ispace considers this to be a major milestone from a technological standpoint. Capabilities that are essential to operate in lunar orbit and on the lunar surface were acquired.

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The customer payloads on board Mission 1 are currently being checked out individually, with some already confirmed. Although Success 4 was completed prior to Success 3 in the Mission 1 Milestones, the achievement of Success 3 will be announced after all customer payload check-outs have been completed.

The order of achieved milestones occurred due to adjustments to the operations plan —no critical issues were identified at the time. ispace will share further updates on HAKUTO-R Mission 1 as they become available.



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