Successful Japanese Mission: SLIM Spacecraft Successfully Lands on the Moon and Proclaims Japan as the 5th Nation to Achieve Lunar Landing

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan’s space agency, has achieved success in landing the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on the lunar surface, making Japan the fifth nation to successfully send a spacecraft to the moon, following the United States, Russia, China, and India.

On September 6, 2023, the SLIM spacecraft was launched from Earth along with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) telescope, both on separate missions but launched simultaneously. The spacecraft orbited the moon starting from December 25, 2023, and successfully landed in the Sea of Nectar on the lunar surface.

While the landing was a success, the SLIM spacecraft is unable to generate electrical power using solar panels, possibly due to the misalignment of the solar panels. As a result, the SLIM spacecraft currently relies solely on battery power, and additional updates regarding this issue are expected to be announced by JAXA.

TLDR: Japan’s space agency, JAXA, successfully landed the SLIM spacecraft on the moon, making Japan the fifth nation to achieve this feat. The spacecraft is facing challenges in generating electricity from solar panels, relying solely on battery power for now. Updates from JAXA are awaited on this matter.