Japan has become the 5th country in the world to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon, using precision technology.
- The technology allowed it to touch down closer to its target landing site than any mission has before. However the spacecraft might have survived on the lunar surface for just a few hours due to power failure.
- The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, touched down in its target area near Shioli crater, south of the lunar equator on 20th January 2024, four months after lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Centre.
- SLIM has very likely achieved its primary goal — to land on the Moon with an unprecedented accuracy of 100 metres.
- Only the United States, the former Soviet Union, China, India, and Japan have put a spacecraft on the Moon in the past decade. India successfully landed in August 2023.
