Japan launches its first lunar lander

The H2A launch vehicle carrying the Japanese SLIM lunar module and the US XRISM satellite launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Kagoshima Prefecture. The launch was broadcast on site Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The launch was carried out at 08:42 Tokyo time (02:42 Moscow time).

The SLIM module must work out the technology of high-precision landing of devices within 100 meters from the planned point on the surface of the moon. He will study the craters and the relief of the Earth’s satellite. Landing of the module on the Moon is expected in 3-4 months.

XRISM is designed to study space through X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. He will study the neighborhoods of black holes and galactic clusters. Scientists intend to obtain data on the development of the largest infrastructures in the Universe, the distribution of matter in space and the formation of galaxies.

If the mission is successful, Japan will become the fifth country after the USSR, the US, China and India to land on the moon. In April, the Japanese company Ispace launched the Hakuto-R module, which could be the first privately developed vehicle to land on the moon. However, communication with the device was lost.

August 23 Indian automatic lunar station “Chandrayan-3” successfully landed on the surface of the moon. After 11 days of operation, the Pragyan lunar rover successfully completed all the assigned tasks, after which it translated into sleep mode.

In August, for the first time in almost 50 years, Russia made an attempt to land on the station. August 11 station “Luna-25” started from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur Region. The station was supposed to land in the south polar region of the Moon on August 21. However, on August 20, the state corporation Roscosmos reportedthat “Luna-25” collided with the surface of the Earth’s satellite.

Lusine Balasyan