Japan’s space agency postponed the launch of its spacecraft for the third time on Monday. moon mission “Moon Sniper” (moon sniper) due to bad weather.
The H2-A rocket, which was scheduled to take off from the southern island of Tangashima, was also carrying a research satellite developed together with NASA and the European Space Agency.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) did not set a new start date for the mission, which comes after India successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon last week.
MHI Launch Services, co-developer of the rocket, said on the X social network that the mission was suspended due to the wind.
The Indian spacecraft touched down near the lunar south pole, a triumph for the world’s most populous country and its low-cost space program.
Previously, only the United States, Russia and China had managed to place spacecraft on the lunar surface, none of them at the south pole.
The Indian success comes days after a Russian probe crashed in the same lunar region, and four years after a previous Indian attempt failed at the last minute.
Japan tried last year to land a probe called Omotenashi, carried by NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket, on the moon, but the mission went awry and communications were lost.
In April, the Japanese company ispace failed in its ambitious attempt to become the first private company to land on the moon, after it lost communication following a “hard moon landing”
“Moon Sniper” it got its name because JAXA seeks to place it within 100 meters of a given point on the Moon, down from the normal range of several kilometers.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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