SLIM Moon lander

Tokyo, Dec 26, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has successfully entered lunar orbit on Christmas day, successfully setting the stage for the nation's first-ever moon landing on January 20, 2024, the agency said. The robotic SLIM moon lander successfully inserted into lunar orbit at 16:51 (Japan Standard Time, JST) on December 25, 2023, JAXA said in a mission update. The 2.7 metres SLIM launched on September 6 along with XRISM, a powerful X-ray space telescope. If successful, Japan will become just the fifth country to successfully soft-land on the Moon, after Russia, US,…