<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">SpaceX on Wednesday postponed the launch of the world's first private lander to the Moon, a mission undertaken by Japanese firm ispace.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">A Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to blast off at 3:37 am (0837 GMT) on Thursday from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida, but SpaceX said further checks on the vehicle had led to a delay.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"After further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, we're standing down from tomorrow's launch of @ispace_inc's HAKUTO-R Mission 1; a new target launch date will be shared once confirmed," the firm tweeted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Until now, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The mission by ispace is the first of a program called Hakuto-R.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lander would touch down around April 2023 on the visible side of the Moon, in the Atlas crater, according to a company statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The delay came after the launch had already been postponed by a day due to the need for additional pre-flight checks, SpaceX and ispace said on Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Measuring just over 2 by 2.5 meters, the lander carries on board a 10-kilogram rover named Rashid, built by the United Arab Emirates.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The oil-rich country is a newcomer to the space race but counts recent successes including sending a probe into Mars' orbit last year. If it succeeds, Rashid will be the Arab world's first Moon mission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have achieved so much in the six short years since we first began conceptualizing this project in 2016," said ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakuto was one of five finalists in the international Google Lunar XPrize competition, a challenge to land a rover on the Moon before a 2018 deadline, which ended without a winner. But some of the projects are still ongoing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another finalist, from the Israeli organization SpaceIL, failed in April 2019 to become the first privately-funded mission to achieve the feat, after crashing into the surface while attempting to land.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">ispace, which has just 200 employees, says it "aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon." AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">&nbsp;bnbd24/kh</div>