JAXA Spacecraft SLIM Ready to Begin Final Preparations Toward Japan’s 1st Lunar Landing

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:31 JST, January 15, 2024

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s lunar probe SLIM is ready to begin preparations for a lunar descent toward Japan’s first landing on the moon on Jan. 20, JAXA announced on Monday.

SLIM will attempt to land on the moon using “pinpoint landing” technology with a margin of error of 100 meters.

SLIM, which has been put into a circular orbit at an altitude of about 600 kilometers above the moon, is scheduled to begin the landing descent at around 0:00 JST, Jan. 20, and conduct the landing at 0:20 JST near a crater on the moon’s equator.