Japan became the fifth country in the history of astronautics to land a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, Reuters reports. The SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) landing module reached the Earth’s satellite on January 19 at 15:20 GMT (18:20 Moscow time). Scientists have yet to find out what conditions SLIM encountered during its flight and landing, as well as the condition of the equipment.
Thus, Japan became one of the lunar powers, which already included the USA, USSR (RF), China and India. At the same time, the Japanese mission could not reach its goal, since the module experienced technical problems during the flight – the state space agency JAXA even interrupted the broadcast of the mission on YouTube.
JAXA later announced the launch of SLIM in accordance with calculations and plans, and also confirmed the receipt of the necessary data from the device. However, according to JAXA representatives, SLIM’s solar battery stopped functioning, so the device has little time left to operate.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida thanked JAXA scientists and promised continued government support for space programs. The Japanese government continues to develop new goals and objectives for future space exploration.
Source: Rosbalt
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