Japan forced to suspend launch of historic first Moon lander

Next launch date remains to be announced but could be as late as mid-September

Japan’s Jaxa space agency has suspended the planned launch of what would be the country’s first ever Moon lander due to strong high-altitude winds.

Liftoff was expected aboard Japan’s flagship H-IIA rocket at 9.26 am Japan Standard Time (12.26am GMT) on Monday to simultaneously send two different space missions – a new X-ray telescope dubbed the “Moon Sniper” to spy on some of the hottest parts of the universe and a small robotic moon lander called the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim).

However, strong winds in the upper atmosphere led operator Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to suspension the launch less than 30 minutes before the planned liftoff from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

“Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has postponed the launch of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 47 (H-IIA F47) which carries aboard XRISM and SLIM produced by JAXA due to the fact that the upper winds did not meet the launch conditions,” MHI said in a statement on Monday.

“The new launch date and time will be announced once confirmed,” the space agency said.

The XRISM satellite is a joint mission by Jaxa and Nasa along with some contributions by the European Space Agency to reveal the universe in X-rays.

Its objective is to investigate the structural formation of the universe and the evolution of galaxy clusters as well as the history of material circulation, energy transport and circulation in the universe.

The satellite is expected to be particularly well suited for studying extended objects in the universe such as galaxy clusters and supernova remnants due to its “outstanding” ability to distinguish colour, Jaxa said.

The space agency said XRISM would “elucidate the processes of matter circulation and energy transport in the high-temperature regions of the universe, as well as the evolution of astronomical objects”.

Jaxa’s objective for the Moon lander on the other hand is to demonstrate high-precision landing on celestial bodies.

Slim aims to land with an accuracy of upto 100m compared to conventional lunar landers whose accuracy is “several or sometimes a dozen kilometers”.

The Japanese space agency was aiming to start Slim’s landing onto the Moon’s surface from the lunar orbit in January-February 2024, following the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission last week.

But the next launch date after Monday’s postponement remains to be announced.

MHI’s launch unit chief Tatsuru Tokunaga said any potential launch could not happen sooner than Thursday due to processes such as re-fuelling of the launcher.

MHI and Jaxa have said the next launch date could be as late as 15 September, according to Reuters.