Japan’s ispace Resilience set to attempt Moon landing; the timing, how and where to watch live

Japan’s private space company, ispace, is preparing for a major milestone in lunar exploration. The Tokyo-based company will attempt to land its “Resilience” lunar lander on the Moon on Thursday, June 5, 2025. This is part of its Hakuto-R Mission 2, which aims to establish Japan as a leader in commercial lunar missions.


The scheduled touchdown time is 3:24 p.m. EDT (2:24 p.m. CDT). The lander is targeting Mare Frigoris, or the “Sea of Cold,” a flat region in the Moon’s northern hemisphere. This area is considered geologically stable and offers safe landing conditions for robotic missions.


This marks ispace’s second attempt to land on the Moon. Its first mission in 2023 failed during the final descent due to a loss of communication just before landing. Learning from that experience, ispace returns with upgraded navigation systems, improved landing software, and a lighter spacecraft.


As per Ispace, this mission will have precise landing capabilities and collect operational data for future missions. Onboard the lander is a small vehicle named “Tenacious”, a rover developed to test surface mobility and gather scientific data. It will examine soil conditions and help in understanding the Moon’s environment, vital for future human and robotic exploration.


ispace also sees this as a step toward building a lunar economy, where private companies play a central role in supporting scientific missions, communication relays, and even resource mining.

How to watch the moon landing live

The event will be live-streamed globally via ispace’s official YouTube channel, with coverage in both Japanese and English. The live stream begins on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at 2:10 p.m. EDT (1:10 p.m. CDT), a little over an hour before the scheduled landing.

Local viewing times for major US cities:

• New York City (EDT) – Landing at 3:24 p.m.; stream starts at 2:10 p.m.
  
  
  
• Chicago (CDT) – Landing at 2:24 p.m.; stream starts at 1:10 p.m.
  
  
  
• Houston (CDT) – Landing at 2:24 p.m.; stream starts at 1:10 p.m.
  
  
  
• Los Angeles (PDT) – Landing at 12:24 p.m.; stream starts at 11:10 a.m.
  
  
  
• Denver (MDT) – Landing at 1:24 p.m.; stream starts at 12:10 p.m.
  
  
  

If successful, this will be the first private Japanese landing on the Moon and will position ispace as a key player in the growing field of commercial spaceflight. The data gathered will support NASA’s Artemis program and Japan’s own collaboration with space agencies like JAXA and ESA.


This mission reflects a broader global push to return to the Moon, not just for exploration, but to lay the groundwork for permanent human presence. ispace hopes to launch annual missions, with a long-term goal of establishing sustainable lunar transportation and resource use by the 2030s.