Two lunar landers built by private companies in the US and Japan left Earth aboard a SpaceX rocket as part of a shared journey to the moon.
Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:09 local time (06:09 GMT) on Wednesday, carrying descent modules belonging to US Firefly Aerospace and Japan's ispace.
The landers will eventually separate once they reach lunar orbit and conduct independent research.
They are the latest in a growing number of commercial missions to the moon.
Firefly's Mars rover, Blue Space, is expected to take about 45 days to reach the Moon after separating from SpaceX's rocket.
It will then drill, collect samples and take X-ray images of Earth's magnetic field to “advance research for future human missions to the Moon and provide insight into how space weather affects the planet,” according to SpaceX.
Meanwhile, ispace's Resilience lander will take up to five months to reach the moon's surface, where it will deploy a rover to explore and try to scoop up loose surface material known as regolith.
NASA is backing the venture, which, if successful, would be its largest commercial delivery to the moon to date.
Intuitive Machines last year became the first commercial company to place a lander on the moona feat previously achieved only by the United States, the Soviet Union, China, India and Japan.
Separately, SpaceX is also conducting its seventh orbital flight test of its Starship rocket, which is scheduled to lift off from Texas at 4:00 p.m. local time (22:00 GMT).