Two private lunar landers head toward the moon in a roundabout journey

SpaceX has launched a pair of lunar landers for U.S. and Japanese companies looking to jumpstart business up there. The two landers rocketed away early Wednesday from Florida, the latest in a stream of private spacecraft aiming for the moon. They shared the ride to save money but planned to peel away on separate roundabout routes. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander should arrive in March. Tokyo's ispace company expects its Resilience lander to get there by May or June. This is the second moon mission for ispace. Its first ended with a crash in 2023.