Japan becomes fifth country to put spacecraft on moon as lander reaches lunar surface

Japan has become the fifth country to put a spacecraft on the moon after its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) made a successful landing on Friday. Hitoshi Kuninaka, the head of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, said: ‘We are also able to confirm that the spacecraft is receiving commands correctly from Earth and responding to them.’ However, Kuninaka said the spacecraft wasn’t able to generate electricity due to issues with its solar panels

Japan’s Slim spacecraft lands on moon but struggles to generate power
The race for the moon
Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ craft makes lunar landing but is unable to generate electricity via solar power – as it happened