If confirmed, Japan will have become only the fifth country to safely put a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
Topline
Japan on Friday landed its precise “Moon Sniper” rover on the Moon, and its space agency is checking data to confirm the landing’s success, a potentially historic achievement that could see it join a select group of just four other countries, as nations and private companies race to stake a claim in the emerging space economy.Key Facts
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it landed its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on the lunar surface and was checking to confirm whether the landing was successful.
SLIM began its descent at 10 a.m. Eastern time and touched down around 20 minutes later, shortly after midnight in Japan—the country’s space agency live-streamed the operation on YouTube.
The probe is nicknamed the “moon sniper” on account of the precision navigation technology it uses.
JAXA hoped to land the rover on the lunar surface within 100 meters of a set target, a significant improvement on the precision of previous lunar landings, which had landing zones stretching kilometers.
JAXA officials have said mission success would mean a new era of space travel and a change from « landing where we can » to « landing where we want.
