Japanese startup ispace will try Wednesday to become the first private company to land a robot on the moon. The Hakuto-R lunar lander, which was previously in orbit some 100 kilometers above the moon, must have already begun its descent to the lunar surface.
It must then reappear, slow down its course and adjust its altitude, in order to perform a "soft landing" around 16:40 GMT Tuesday. The success of the mission, however, is far from guaranteed. In April 2019, the Israeli organization SpaceIL saw its probe crash into the surface of the Moon.