By Japan became only the 5th nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon, when the ‘Moon Sniper’ owned by Japan’s space agency JAXA touched down late Friday (19th), JAXA announced.
The exact status of the spacecraft was not clear, as even after an hour after landing JAXA said that it was still “checking its status”.
Only spacecraft from the US, the Soviet Union, China and India have made it to the lunar surface intact.
The Moon Sniper is carrying two small rovers to explore the moon’s terrain.
One is a hopping robot that weighs about 2kg (4.4lb). The other is in the shape of a ball that will change its shape when it stops to take photos.
The success follows the failure this month of a private American company to reach the lunar surface.
Last year, a private Japanese company, Ispace, attempted to land a spacecraft. But crashed when the onboard computer became confused about its altitude above the Moon and shut down its thruster system early.
