ispace lander
Japan's ispace plans to launch its first two missions, including its first lander, as secondary payloads on SpaceX launches in mid-2020 and mid-2021. Credit: ispace

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The organization that helped NASA’s Apollo spacecraft land on the moon a half-century ago is now working with an industry team that includes a Japanese lunar lander company to propose a commercial return to the lunar surface.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...