Crowds Watch SpaceX Launch First Commercial Moon Lander From Cape Canaveral, Florida

"A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral early on Sunday, December 11, launching a Japanese commercial lunar lander, Hakuto-R Mission 1, as well as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Lunar Flashlight.

The Hakuto-R mission – which means “white rabbit” in Japanese – was developed by the iSpace company. If successful, it would be the first commercial lunar landing.

NASA said Lunar Flashlight is a small satellite that uses near-infrared lasers and an onboard spectrometer to map ice in permanently shadowed regions near the Moon’s south pole.

Credit: Gabriel Jones via Storyful"