By Joey Roulette and Kantaro Komiya ORLANDO, Florida/TOKYO (Reuters) -Two moon landers, one from Japan's ispace and another from U.S. space firm Firefly, began their journeys into space on Wednesday with SpaceX's unusual double moonshot launch,

The lander of Texas-based rocket and spacecraft builder Firefly Aerospace has begun a 45-day trip to the moon.

The Blue Ghost mission is one of four Firefly is working on as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The initiative is part of NASA's larger Artemis campaign to establish a long-term presence on the Moon and prepare for the exploration of Mars.