The second lunar lander from Japanese space exploration company ispace is ready for a flyby of the moon as part of its elongated moon landing journey.
ispace's Resilience lander launched on Jan. 15 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander. It is taking an energy-efficient, circuitous route to the moon, and only last week performed a crucial maneuver to raise its orbit and set up the lunar flyby.
The flyby is a gravity assist that will save the spacecraft fuel, altering the spacecraft's trajectory into a low energy transfer. That means the maneuver will set up a later rendezvous with the moon that will allow Resilience to enter lunar orbit with a much smaller engine burn than required for a more traditional, direct four-day trip to the moon.
Source: www.space.com
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