Japan Becomes Fifth Nation to Land on the Moon

Despite last-minute engine problems, Japan's "Moon Sniper" craft made a precise lunar landing, the space agency announced on Jan 25, as it released the mission's first images. A photo taken by a mini-rover showed the boxy yellow lander sitting at a slight angle on the rocky grey surface, with lunar slopes rising in the distance.

Japan became only the fifth country to land softly on the moon on Saturday, following the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India. The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), also known as the "Moon Sniper" due to its precision technology, was designed to land within 100 metres of a specific landing spot on a crater.

That is much more precise than the usual landing zone range that experts put at several kilometres.

"SLIM succeeded in a pin-point soft landing ... the landing point is confirmed to be 55 metres away from the target point," space agency JAXA said on Thursday.

The lander suffered engine problems during its descent that may have knocked it off course, Shinichiro Sakai, SLIM's project manager, told reporters. Before that, the craft had been on track to land even closer to its target.

Problems with the lightweight spacecraft's solar batteries also meant they were not generating power. Nearly three hours after touchdown, JAXA decided to switch SLIM off with 12 per cent power remaining to allow for a possible resumption when the sun's angle changes. That could be in just a week because the craft's solar cells are facing west, the agency said.