ESPAÇO
Japão entra na corrida à Lua com lançamento
September 7, 2023 - O Japão lançou uma missão lunar, esperando ser o quinto país do mundo a colocar uma sonda na Lua depois dos EUA, Rússia, China e Índia.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the rocket took off from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan as planned and successfully released the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).
Japan aims to land SLIM within 100 metres of its target location – much closer than conventional lunar landers, which usually have an accuracy of several kilometres.
The landing mission will study the origins of the moon and test technology that is critical to future moon landing programs, experts said.
The launch comes two weeks after India became the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the unexplored lunar south pole. Around the same time, Russia's Luna-25 lander crashed while approaching 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.