A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blared toward space Wednesday carrying a pair of lunar landers on a journey to our closest celestial neighbor — kicking off what’s expected to be a bustling year of moon missions amid a renewed race to establish a long-term human presence on the lunar surface.

Built by Firefly Aerospace and Ispace, the pair of spacecraft will land separately in the moon's northern latitudes, conduct science experiments and test new technology

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a pair of lunar landers into space early Wednesday, sending Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience on their lengthy journeys to the moon.

With the nearly full moon shining overhead, two companies, one American and the other headquartered in Japan, launched privately-developed robotic lunar landers early Wednesday, sharing a sky-lighting ride to space atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The rocket carried two lunar landers into orbit, each headed on separate missions. It will take the machines a few months to reach the lunar surface.

SpaceX is scheduled to launch its latest round of Starlink satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday, lifting off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the Transporter-12 mission to low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. #SpaceX #launch #Reuters Keep up with the latest news from around the world: ------------------------------------------------------ LiveTube | Latest Breaking News and Live Video Pioneering LIve News.

The SpaceX rocket sent Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander into space. It is expected to arrive on the Moon in about 45 days.

SpaceX’s seventh Starship test flight will be the most ambitious to date, and the first involving a new 'block 2' version with significant upgrades.