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2 Claim Mega Millions Prize; 3rd-Largest US Lottery Jackpot

A customer walks in to the Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Ill., where the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold, Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP)
A customer walks in to the Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Ill., where the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold, Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP)
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2 Claim Mega Millions Prize; 3rd-Largest US Lottery Jackpot

A customer walks in to the Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Ill., where the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold, Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP)
A customer walks in to the Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Ill., where the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold, Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP)

Two people who wish to remain anonymous have claimed a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot after a single ticket to the late July drawing was sold in a Chicago suburb, opting to take a lump sum payment of $780.5 million, lottery officials said Wednesday.

The Illinois Lottery said the prize for the July 29 drawing, which was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize, was claimed by two individuals who had agreed to split the prize if they won. The two, who followed the lead of the vast majority of winners who choose to remain anonymous, had until Sept. 27 to opt in favor of the lump sum payment, said Emilia Mazur, spokeswoman for Camelot Illinois, the private manager of the Illinois Lottery.

The Illinois Lottery said it was unable to share any information about the winners except to say that they must be absolutely “over the moon” with their Mega Millions win. Illinois is one of at least 16 states where winners can remain anonymous.

Lottery officials said the two people have spent the past few weeks working with professional legal and financial advisors to support the claim process — something experts recommend lottery winners do.

“These winners are now in the enviable position of deciding what to do with their newfound fortune,” said Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays.

According to megamillions.com, one jackpot-winning ticket was bought at a Speedway gas station and convenience store in Des Plaines.

The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14.

The jackpot grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner. Because nobody has won the Mega Millions jackpot since the July 29 drawing, the jackpot now stands at an estimated $301 million.

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Varieties

Japan Startup Hopeful Ahead of Second Moon Launch

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
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Japan Startup Hopeful Ahead of Second Moon Launch

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)

Japanese startup ispace vowed its upcoming second unmanned Moon mission will be a success, saying Thursday that it learned from its failed attempt nearly two years ago.

In April 2023, the firm's first spacecraft made an unsalvageable "hard landing", dashing its ambitions to be the first private company to touch down on the Moon.

The Houston-based Intuitive Machines accomplished that feat last year with an uncrewed craft that landed at the wrong angle but was able to complete tests and send photos.

With another mission scheduled to launch next week, ispace wants to win its place in space history at a booming time for missions to the Moon from both governments and private companies.

"We at ispace were disappointed in the failure of Mission 1," ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters.

"But that's why we hope to send a message to people across Japan that it's important to challenge ourselves again, after enduring the failure and learning from it."

"We will make this Mission 2 a success," AFP quoted him as saying.

Its new lander, called Resilience, will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, along with another lunar lander built by US company Firefly Aerospace.

If Resilience lands successfully, it will deploy a micro rover and five other payloads from corporate partners.

These include an experiment by Takasago Thermal Engineering, which wants to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with a view to using hydrogen as satellite and spacecraft fuel.

- Rideshare -

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander will arrive at the Moon after travelling 45 days, followed by ispace's Resilience, which the Japanese company hopes will land on the Earth's satellite at the end of May, or in June.

For the program, officially named Hakuto-R Mission 2, ispace chose to cut down on costs by arranging the first private-sector rocket rideshare, Hakamada said.

Only five nations have soft-landed spacecraft on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and, most recently, Japan.

Many companies are vying to offer cheaper and more frequent space exploration opportunities than governments.

Space One, another Japanese startup, is trying to become Japan's first company to put a satellite into orbit -- with some difficulty so far.

Last month, Space One's solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from a private launchpad in western Japan but was later seen spiraling downwards in the distance.

That was the second launch attempt by Space One after an initial try in March last year ended in a mid-air explosion.

Meanwhile Toyota, the world's top-selling carmaker, announced this week it would invest seven billion yen ($44 million) in Japanese rocket startup Interstellar Technologies.

"The global demand for small satellite launches has surged nearly 20-fold, from 141 launches in 2016 to 2,860 in 2023," driven by private space businesses, national security concerns and technological development, Interstellar said.