Japan’s space agency announced that the country’s first lunar landing craft has been successfully inserted into lunar orbit.
The Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) unmanned vehicle was placed in the planned lunar orbit at around 16.50 Japan time on Monday (25/12/2023). He added that the spacecraft is currently in normal condition.
The agency said landing on the lunar surface was scheduled for around 12.20am on January 20, as planned.
If SLIM successfully lands on the moon, Japan will become the fifth country to achieve the feat, after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India, which have already done so this year.
SLIM is capable of landing on targets with a margin of error of 100 meters, which is more than ten times the landing accuracy of spacecraft sent by four other countries.
2023-12-26 05:55:01
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