Two moon landers, one from Japan's ispace and another from U.S. 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.

EPIC (Earth image) The ispace mission will launch ‘Hakuto-R Mission 2’ on a four-and-a-half month journey to the lunar surface Japanese lander heads to the Moon About one month after launch Complete a lunar flyby 4.

SpaceX launched Japan’s ispace Resilience and the US-based Firefly Blue Ghost as part of the global effort to explore the moon. Resilience seeks a second lunar landing attempt after a prior setback, while Firefly embarks on its first mission.