Japan’s space agency was racing to confirm whether its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had reached the lunar surface early Saturday.
If confirmed, Japan would be only the fifth country to land a craft on the moon, after the U.S., Russia, China and India.
Tensions rose at midnight Saturday as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) began its final descent, dubbed the “20 minutes of terror,” in the closely watched last stage of the spacecraft’s four-month journey to the moon.
At around 12:20 a.m. Japan time, as people watched from around the world, the spacecraft nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” appeared to have touched down, although JAXA has yet to confirm whether it landed on the lunar surface.
A successful mission would give a much-needed boost to Japan’s space program, which has experienced a series of setbacks in recent years including the launch failure of its H3 flagship rocket in March 2023.
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