UPDATED 1:47 AM ET Jan. 15, 2025 PUBLISHED 5:52 AM ET Jan. 14, 2025 PUBLISHED 5:52 AM EST Jan. 14, 2025 SHARE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Getting cheers from a crowd battling the chilly winds, SpaceX successfully launched a pair of lunar landers from companies Firefly Aerospace and ispace early Wednesday morning. Their next stop: The moon. What You Need To Know Onboard the Falcon 9 rocket are two separate lunar landers from two different companies Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace is having its lunar lander called Blue Ghost being launched Also included on the rocket is Japanese company ispace’s HAKUTO-R lunar lander RELATED coverage — ispace (@ispace_inc) January 14, 2025 To the moon or bust In 2023, ispace attempted to land on the moon with its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 but it did not stick the landing. However, amazing photos of Earth from the moon were captured and the data collected from that mission has been used for this latest one. Going to the moon is not exactly a walk in the park. While there have been some successes, like when China's Chang's 6 probe collected lunar rock and soil samples and returned to Earth in 2024, there has been two private companies that had less than stellar results last year. Astrobotic stated that its Peregrine lunar lander lost fuel due to an anomaly and it did not reach the moon after the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket. The Peregrine was redirected to return to Earth and it crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Intuitive Machines became the first private commercial company to land on Earth’s sister and the company called it a successful mission, however, the company’s Nova-C lunar lander tipped over.