Japan asserted its position as a national space authority on Friday with the successful landing of its SLIM spacecraft on the lunar surface.
The SLIM lander, launched in September, executed a landing on the lunar surface at approximately 10:20 a.m. ET, as indicated by telemetry data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Hiroshi Yamakawa, the president of JAXA, confirmed the success of the soft landing, and the spacecraft managed to transmit signals post-descent.
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However, the solar panel functionality appeared compromised upon landing, requiring the spacecraft to rely on battery power.
Hitoshi Kuninaka, Director General of JAXA, remarked, “I believe this was a significant step forward.”
SLIM Mission Marks Japan’s Fifth Lunar Landing
This accomplishment positions Japan as the fifth nation to achieve a lunar landing, following Russia (then the Soviet Union), the United States, China, and India. India recently joined the roster of lunar landings with its Chandrayaan-3 mission last year.
Japan’s SLIM, an acronym for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, is a cargo research mission designed to carry a diverse array of scientific payloads. Among these payloads are an analysis camera and a pair of lunar rovers.
Since the initial attempts in the early 1960s, both governments and private enterprises have undertaken over 50 endeavors to land on the moon, displaying a varied record of success that has persisted into the modern era.
In the previous year, Japanese company ispace made its inaugural effort to land on the moon, concluding in a spacecraft crash during the final stages.
Similarly, US company Astrobotic initiated its first moon mission earlier this month but faced complications shortly after launch, leading to a truncated flight that omitted a lunar landing attempt.
Anticipated lunar landing endeavors include upcoming missions by US companies Intuitive Machines and Firefly later this year, and China is set to launch another lunar lander in May.