After three postponements due to unfavorable weather conditions, a Japanese rocket with a small lander was launched on the moon’s surface on Thursday. This can be seen in an official launch video broadcast on YouTube.
With the launch, Japan is making a new attempt to land a device on the moon. This will be a first for the country, and a welcome success for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the Japanese space agency that has had several failures since last year.
The H-IIA rocket was launched from the JAXA base in Tanegashima on Thursday morning, Japan time. On board is the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigation the Moon) lunar lander, equipped with new technology that should be able to perform a very precise landing, a maximum of 100 meters from the target instead of several kilometres.
India managed to land a spacecraft on the moon last month. Which made India the fourth country to succeed in this, after the United States, the then Soviet Union, and China. Russia also made another attempt last month, but it failed. Russia’s first mission to the moon in 47 years resulted in the Luna-25 lander crashing into the moon after entering an uncontrolled orbit around the celestial body.
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