New Delhi. Japan launched the H-IIA rocket carrying the National Space Agency’s Moon Lander on Thursday morning. Japan finally managed to do so after bad weather suspended the mission three times in one week last month. It was launched by an H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center. The Japanese space agency had to change the launch date of the lunar mission due to frequent bad weather. The rocket will carry the lander in the lunar mission ‘Moon Sniper’ to be launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which is expected to reach the lunar surface in four to six months.
Japan’s lunar mission will also carry an X-ray imaging satellite designed to probe the evolution of the universe. The event was streamed live on JAXA’s YouTube channel, which offered broadcasts in both English and Japanese. Japan has been working on its lunar mission for a long time. Japan’s lunar mission involved many things. Under this mission, a smart lander will be landed to investigate on the moon. The Japanese space agency is sending the Moon Sniper to the moon via the H2A rocket. Moon Sniper is equipped with a high technology camera, which will work to perceive the moon. SLIM’s lunar landing is scheduled for early next year.
This is the first attempt to land on the moon by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). An earlier attempt by a private Japanese company in May this year failed. SLIM (Smart Lander for Lunar Investigation) is a very small spacecraft, weighing about 200 kg. In comparison, the Chandrayaan-3 lander module weighs around 1,750 kg. The main objective of SLIM is to land precisely within 100 meters of a selected site.
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Tags: Japan
First published: September 07, 2023, 07:10 IST