Moon-Bound Lander Snaps Stunning Image Of Earth Looking Like A Crescent [Photo]

The private HAKUTO-R mission is days along on its journey to the Moon. On the way, the lander's camera snapped a stunning goodbye photo of the Earth looking rather like a crescent Moon.

The Japanese HAKUTO-R mission successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Sunday and is now on its way to try to land on the Moon. Just days after its launch, lunar exploration company ispace confirmed in a statement Wednesday that the camera on top of the lander has successfully taken images and transmitted them to the mission control center.

It shared an image of the Earth, which was taken about 19 hours after separating from the launch vehicle. In it, the Earth looks rather like a crescent Moon.

"The fact that data was recorded by an ispace-owned camera and then successfully transmitted to our MCC represents the first step towards realizing ispace's planned data business," the company noted in the statement. "We also consider this to be a major milestone from a technological standpoint."

The camera will be taking more photos as the mission pushes through, it added.

Meanwhile, one of the payloads of the mission also captured another stunning photo of our planet. Taken by one of the multiple cameras in the Canadensys lunar imaging system that's mounted on the sides of the lander, the image shows the Earth and the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket just about two minutes after separation.

"We are very pleased with the performance of the imaging system, and with the quality of the first in-space images we have obtained," Canadensys' Toronto facility General Manager, Frank Teti, said in the company statement released Wednesday, "We look forward to sharing equally spectacular images when we touch-down on the Moon."

The current mission is a part of the "multinational commercial lunar exploration program operated by ispace." The first mission, dubbed simply as Mission 1, aims to perform a soft landing on the Moon.

Mission 1 is said to be the "first privately-led Japanese mission to land on the lunar surface." While the national space agencies of the U.S., China and Russia have successfully made soft landings on the lunar surface, this goal has been rather elusive for companies.

The first mission is expected to reach the lunar surface by April 2023.