Tokyo: US company SpaceX carried out the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with the Japanese lunar lander HAKUTO-R created by the private company Ispace.
The rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 07:38 GMT.
The rocket also carries NASA’s Lunar Flashlight satellite, according to the SpaceX website.
Later in the day, the company confirmed on Twitter the successful deployment of both HAKUTO-R and Lunar Flashlight.
The lunar landing of the HAKUTO-R mission is scheduled for the end of 2023.
