Japan launches historic mission for ‘precision landing’ on lunar surface along with ‘Moon sniper’ satellite

‘Moon sniper’ satellite will spy on hottest parts of universe as lander to attempt ‘high precision’ lunar landing

A historic “high precision landing” spacecraft was launched to the Moon by Japan as it hopes to become the fifth country to soft land on the lunar surface.

The spacecraft was launched aboard the country’s homegrown H-IIA Launch rocket and carried the two payloads that took off at 8.42am on Japan Standard Time on Thursday from the Tanegashima Space Center.

Japan’s space agency Jaxa confirmed the rocket flew as planned, and the spacecraft carrying the payloads successfully separated from the launch vehicle, one at about 14 minutes after launch and the other at 47 minutes after liftoff.

One of the payloads, a satellite named XRISM and dubbed the “Moon sniper”, is a joint mission by Jaxa and Nasa, with some contributions by the European Space Agency to reveal the universe in X-rays.

Jaxa’s aim for the “Moon sniper” it to spy on some of the hottest parts of the universe. The satellite is particularly well suited for studying extended objects in the universe such as galaxy clusters and supernova remnants, Jaxa said.

XRISM will “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,” the space agency said.

The other payload, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim), is to demonstrate high-precision landing with an accuracy of up to 100m, compared to conventional lunar landers whose accuracy is “several or sometimes a dozen kilometers”.

The spacecraft is expected to start its landing manoeuvres by February after following a long, fuel-efficient trajectory.

Japan’s mission comes days after India’s successful landing of its own spacecraft on the Moon, making the country the fourth to soft land on the lunar surface.

In the process, India also became the first ever to land near the Moon’s south pole, doing so on a very restrictive budget of about Rs 6.15bn ($75m).

Around this time, Russia also attempted to land its Luna-25 lander near the Moon’s south pole, but the spacecraft crashed as it approached the lunar surface.

Two other attempts from Japan to land on the Moon in the past year had also failed.

Jaxa scrubbed its Omotenashi lander mission in November as it lost contact with the spacecraft, and the Hakuto-R Mission by the Japanese startup ispace crashed on the Moon in April as it descended on the lunar surface.