TOKYO – Japan on Friday may have joined a small group of countries that have successfully landed on the Moon.
According to a live broadcast by JAXA, the country’s space agency, telemetry from the Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) show that the craft made contact with the lunar surface at 10:20 a.m. ET.
What is not yet clear is if SLIM survived the landing. Commentators in the broadcast said that scientists are still checking the status of the lander. A news conference from JAXA later Friday is expected to provide an update on their review of data from SLIM.
If the landing was a success, Japan would join five other countries that have put crafts on the Moon – the U.S., Russia, China and India. The U.S. remains the only country to put humans on the Moon.
SLIM, which is nicknamed “Moon Sniper,” is a small craft – nearly 8 feet tall and nearly 9 feet wide. According to JAXA, the probe is designed to demonstrate precision landing technology that the agency believes is crucial to future exploration of the solar system. It is also meant to examine lunar rocks on the slope of a crater.