Japanese space startup Ispace is preparing to launch its second lunar lander on Wednesday, aiming to achieve a historic milestone in private-sector space exploration.

The Resilience lander, part of Ispace’s Mission 2 under the Hakuto-R program, will lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 a.m. (3:11 p.m. JST).

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, with Resilience’s lunar landing expected between late May and early June.

The launch marks a pivotal moment for Ispace following the failure of its first lunar landing attempt in April 2023. That mission ended with the crash of its lunar lander due to a malfunction in the altitude recognition system, which misinterpreted the spacecraft’s position above the moon’s surface.

Company representatives stated that unexpected terrain near the landing site misled the lander’s onboard computer. Believing its altitude readings were incorrect, the computer switched to calculations based on expected altitude. As a result, it thought that the probe was lower than it actually was, leading to the crash.

"While the lander estimated its own altitude to be zero ... it was later determined to be at an altitude of approximately 5 kilometers above the lunar surface," Ispace said in a statement in May 2023.

"After reaching the scheduled landing time, the lander continued to descend at a low speed until the propulsion system ran out of fuel. At that time, the controlled descent of the lander ceased, and we believe that it then free-fell to the lunar surface."

Insufficient consideration of the terrain, compounded by a last-minute change in landing site, were the main contributing factors to the crash, the company added.

Because the failure was traced to a software issue, Resilience did not require a hardware redesign, according to the company.

A successful landing this time would be a significant achievement for Japan’s burgeoning private space sector. If the mission proves successful, Ispace will become the first private company from Asia to successfully land on the lunar surface.

"This will be a new challenge for us," Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said during a news conference Thursday.

"As a company that has experienced the frustration of failure, Ispace understands the importance of learning from it and trying again. We aim to achieve a successful moon landing and deliver excitement to the world."

Resilience represents a leap forward for Ispace’s ambitions, and the mission also aims to pave the way for future commercial activities on the moon.

The lander is designed to deliver a microrover named Tenacious, developed by Ispace’s European subsidiary, to the moon’s Sea of Frost, slightly more to the west than in the previous attempt. Tenacious, which measures 54 centimeters in length, will collect regolith, or lunar soil, which the company plans to sell to NASA.

In addition to the rover, Resilience will carry a diverse array of payloads, highlighting global collaboration and innovation in lunar exploration. Among the items are a lunar water electrolysis device from Takasago Thermal Engineering and a self-contained module from Euglena designed for experiments in lunar food production.

Also onboard are a deep-space radiation probe developed by the Department of Space Science and Engineering at Taiwan's National Central University, a commemorative alloy plate modeled after the Charter of the Universal Century featured in the anime "Mobile Suit Gundam" from Bandai Namco Research, and a small red "Moonhouse" created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.

In a nod to linguistic and cultural diversity, Resilience is also carrying the Memory Disc, a collaborative project with UNESCO and U.S. innovation platform Barrelhand which contains 275 of the world's languages and various cultural treasures.

"The team is united in our efforts to make Mission 2 a success," Hakamada said.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will also carry Blue Ghost, a competing lunar lander developed by Texas-based Firefly Aerospace. Blue Ghost, which will follow a different trajectory, is scheduled to land on the moon in March.