Two new probes set course for the Moon aboard a single rocket

A single rocket for two lunar missions: the devices of two private companies, one American and the other Japanese, flew to the Moon on Wednesday, a new illustration of the growing importance taken by the private sector in exploration spatial.

The two spacecraft, loaded with scientific instruments, are sent into space by a Falcon 9 rocket from billionaire Elon Musk’s American company, SpaceX.

It successfully took off on Wednesday at 1:11 a.m. local time (06:11 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center, on the American east coast.