SpaceX and NASA Targeting Unmanned Lunar Launches in November

The unsurprising one here is that Artemis/SLS decided to forego attempting to launch in October's launch windows and target the last two weeks of November (the 14th to 27th).  That decision was on October 1st; on the 12th, NASA announced that the target date for rollout back to Pad 39B will be November 4th.

The new one to me is that SpaceX is launching a privately developed Japanese lunar mission sometime between November 9th and 15th.  With the next Artemis launch attempt currently set for when the November window opens on the 14th, those two date ranges overlap.  

On October 12th, NASA confirmed that it will roll its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket out to its Kennedy Space Center LC-39A pad for the fourth time as early as November 4th. Barring surprises, the rocket’s next launch attempt is scheduled no earlier than (NET) 12:07 am EDT (17:07 UTC), November 14th. SLS is tasked with launching an uncrewed prototype of NASA’s Orion crew capsule on its way to the Moon, where the spacecraft will attempt to enter lunar orbit and conduct tests before returning to Earth.

The same day, Japanese startup ispace confirmed that HAKUTO-R M1, its first commercial Moon lander, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sometime between November 9th and 15th. While NASA has a $73M contract with ispace to develop a second-generation SERIES-2 Moon lander in the United States, the first-generation HAKUTO-R program has been an almost entirely private endeavor. The first M1 lander will attempt to deliver two rovers and several other commercial and government payloads to surface of the Moon.

While not taking as long to get to the desired lunar orbit as the CAPSTONE mission (which is still around 28 days from its desired orbit after launching June 28th). HAKUTO-R M1 isn't on a mid-'60s style, 3-day, direct flight either. 

According to ispace’s documentation [PDF], Falcon 9 will launch HAKUTO-R into a “supersynchronous” Earth orbit, where the lander will check out its systems before eventually using its own propulsion to thrust itself free of Earth’s gravity well and into the Moon’s. It expects a nominal transit from Earth orbit to the lunar surface to take at least 20 days. The lander is designed to survive up to 12 days on the Moon, during which it will attempt to operate its onboard experiments, deploy both of its tiny rovers, and transmit all the data gathered back to Earth.

Interestingly, HAKUTO-R is specified as weighing around 2300 lb at launch but will land ~66 lb of usable payload on the Moon. ispace has designed and built most of the lander’s structures but contracted with Europe’s ArianeGroup to provide the propulsion system and fully assemble, integrate, and test the lander in Germany. 

ispace’s first HAKUTO-R Moon lander. (ispace photo)  

If you want to emphasize that HAKUTO-R and Artemis/SLS will be on the adjacent launch complex pads, like Eric Ralph at Teslarati, go for it.  With SpaceX's launch cadence and a window that opens November 9th, I suspect that the Falcon 9 might wave at Artemis, but can't imagine that launch being delayed until November 15th and Artemis going on the 14th.  Even in a mission like last week's Galaxy 33/34 launch that was delayed twice, they still launched within 3 days of the initially stated date. 

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A couple of days ago, I mentioned that there were rumors that one of the often-delayed Falcon Heavy launches would go this month. The launch is currently set for October 28th, two weeks from today, but no time has been mentioned.  The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket flying in the world, at least for another few weeks to months, so always worth watching.