Delays on the road to the Moon: IM-3 slips to 2027, ispace picks Japan's H3 for 2028

NASA said in September that Intuitive Machines' IM-3 lunar mission has slipped to early 2027. The lander will fly on a Falcon 9 to Reiner Gamma, an unusual bright swirl on the Moon associated with a local magnetic field.

On August 4 NASA confirmed 12 payloads for the mission: five from NASA, six commercial and one Italian, including the small CADRE rovers and the Lunar Vertex instrument.

Japan's ispace

Japanese company ispace and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed on July 29 to launch Mission 3, the ULTRA lander, on an H3 rocket in 2028, the first Japanese lander on a Japanese rocket. "Mission 3 is a crucial milestone in ispace's early commercialization phase," said CEO Takeshi Hakamada.