Japan has successfully launched a rocket with a lunar lander.
The lander, dubbed the „moon sniper”, is expected to attempt a Moon landing in February if all goes well. The Japanese spacecraft is projected to land within 100m (328ft) of a location near the Shioli crater, on the near side of the Moon.It is expected to enter the Moon’s orbit within four months. It will then spend a month circling the Moon before attempting a landing in February.
After failing twice to reach the lunar surface in the past year, Japan hopes to become the fifth country to land on the Moon, after the US, Russia, China and India.
Two weeks ago, India made history by successfully landing a spacecraft near the south pole of the Moon.
The $100m (£59m) mission is meant to demonstrate Tokyo’s ability to land a lightweight, low-cost spacecraft on the Moon.
The rocket was also carrying the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite, a joint project between the Japanese, American and European space agencies.
The satellite, containing a telescope the size of a bus, has parted ways with the lunar lander to orbit around the Earth. It will now begin studying space phenomena such as black holes, says the BBC.
Last November, JAXA lost contact with its OMOTENASHI spacecraft and aborted the Moon landing mission. More recently in April, a private Japanese start-up, iSpace, failed to land its Hakuto-R lander after it too lost contact with the spacecraft. Two test rocket launches have also failed this year, the latest in July when engine failure caused an explosion.
