Houston company aims to return America to moon's surface with robot lander

SpaceX readied a Falcon 9 rocket for launch early Wednesday to send a commercially built robotic lander to the moon, the first targeting touchdown near the lunar south pole where NASA's Artemis astronauts plan to walk about in a few years.

The flight comes just five weeks after another U.S. company's attempt to land a privately built spacecraft on the moon ended in failure, the third such commercial setback in a row.

The fourth such mission is set for liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at 12:57 a.m. EST Wednesday.