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Was Japan’s moon landing as precise as hoped?

Sean Noone

FILE - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a payload including two lunar rovers from Japan and the United Arab Emirates, lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Dec. 11, 2022. But later in April 2023, the spacecraft from a Japanese company apparently crashed while attempting to land on the moon. Japan now hopes to make the world's first "pinpoint landing" on the moon early Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, joining a modern push for lunar contact with roots in the Cold War-era space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

(NewsNation) — Japan became the fifth country in history to reach the moon when one of its unmanned spacecrafts successfully made a soft landing on the lunar surface early Saturday.

The country’s space officials, however, said they need more time to analyze whether the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), or “moon sniper,” lived up to its name.


SLIM attempted to land within 100 meters (328 feet) of its target, versus the conventional accuracy of several kilometers, a technology the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency says will become a powerful tool in future exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a potential source of oxygen, fuel and water.

Space officials said the craft’s solar panel had failed to generate power, which could shorten its activity on the moon.

The officials believe that the SLIM’s small rovers were launched as planned and that data was being transmitted back to Earth.

Japan follows the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India in reaching the moon.

SLIM landed on the moon at about 12:20 a.m. Tokyo time Saturday.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.