TOKYO (dpa-AFX) – Japan reached the moon with an unmanned probe on Friday evening – there may have been problems during the landing. The situation is still being analyzed, Japan’s space agency Jaxa said in the minutes after the lander “SLIM” (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) reached the moon. An hour later, it was still unclear whether the probe was intact and whether it could send data to Earth. According to the Japanese news agency Kyodo, Jaxa can communicate with the probe.
NEWLY updated:
The guide to your wealth!
Request for free here… If successful, Japan would be the fifth country after the former Soviet Union, the USA, China and India to achieve a soft landing on Earth’s satellite. “SLIM” set off to the moon from the Japanese Tanegashima spaceport last September on board a Japanese H2A carrier rocket.
Last April, a private Japanese company failed in a similar mission. The reason given by the company Ispace was an incorrect altitude calculation of the lander. At the beginning of last week, the US company Astrobotic failed to put the “Peregrine” lander on the moon. It would have been the first private landing there ever.
The US mission started successfully, but then there were problems with the propulsion system. According to the operating company Astrobotic, contact with the capsule was lost on Thursday. It was said that it probably crashed over the South Pacific and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere, as planned after the failure of the moon flight./ln/DP/stw
Source: dpa-AFX