ispace, Firefly launch commercial moon landers

ORLANDO, Florida/TOKYO: Two moon landers, one from Japan’s ispace and another from US space firm Firefly, began their journeys into space on Wednesday with SpaceX’s unusual double moonshot launch, underscoring the global rush to examine the lunar surface.

Japanese moon exploration company ispace launched its Hakuto-R Mission 2, making its second attempt to land on the moon after an initial…