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While SpaceX has a major head start on the way to orbit, Blue Origin has a plan to put an uncrewed spacecraft on the moon in 12-16 months.

The privately built American spacecraft’s ability to send home images and other data has been limited by its sideways landing. On another part of the moon, a Japanese spacecraft woke up.

A SpaceX rocket lifted the spacecraft, which was built by Intuitive Machines of Houston to carry cargo for NASA and other customers to the lunar surface.

The latest flight of a private company attempting to carry NASA payloads to the lunar surface was delayed to Thursday morning.

Carnegie Mellon University students built Iris, a tiny lunar rover. When the spacecraft carrying it to the moon malfunctioned, they turned their vacation house into mission control.

The Astrobotic Peregrine spacecraft launched last week for a lunar landing, but a propulsion malfunction left it unable to complete its mission.