The “Moon Sniper” lander was carried on the Japanese H2-A rocket and is expected to land on the lunar surface within four to six months.
Japan on Thursday (September 7) launched a moon sniper rocket carrying what it plans to be the country’s first successful lunar lander, as seen in live images shared by the country’s space agency.
The H2-A rocket, carrying the “Moon Sniper” precision lander, lifted off at 8:42 a.m. (2342 GMT Wednesday) and is expected to land on the lunar surface within four to six months.
The rocket was launched from Tanegashima in southern Japan, after being postponed three times due to bad weather and garnering around 35,000 viewers online.
The rocket also carries a research satellite developed by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The lunar landing module was launched by Japan just a month after India’s spacecraft landed near the south pole of the Moon, which was seen as a historic triumph for the country.
Japan’s compact lander, officially named Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), has been designed to successfully land within 100 meters of the specific target on the surface of the Moon.
“By creating the SLIM lander, we humans will achieve a qualitative change to be able to land wherever we want and not just where it is easy to land,” JAXA said before the launch.
“By achieving this, it will be possible to land on planets with even more scarce resources than the Moon. Globally, there have been no previous cases of precise landings on celestial bodies with significant gravity like the Moon,” he added.
So far, India, the United States, Russia, and China have been able to place their spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, and India became the first country to do so at the south pole. All of Japan’s previous attempts have failed, including last year when it sent a lunar probe called Omotenashi as part of the United States’ Artemis program.
Omotenashi, which was the size of a backpack, would have been the world’s smallest lunar lander. However, after the probe was launched by NASA’s powerful rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the mission faced problems and communications were eventually lost.
Japan also faced problems with launch rockets, after the next-generation H3 model failed after liftoff in March and the reliable solid-fuel Epsilon also failed last October.
We Hope that it will be a successful mission. Best wishes with Japan.