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TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan launched the H-IIA rocket carrying the nationwide area company’s moon lander on Thursday morning, after unfavourable climate led to 3 postponements in per week final month.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mentioned the rocket took off from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan as deliberate. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries manufactured the rocket and operated the launch.
The rocket is carrying JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft, dubbed the “moon sniper” for its experimental precision touchdown know-how. SLIM’s lunar touchdown is scheduled for early subsequent 12 months.
The launch comes two weeks after India turned the fourth nation to efficiently land a spacecraft on the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the lunar south pole.
Two earlier makes an attempt by Japan to land on the moon failed prior to now 12 months. JAXA misplaced contact with a lander carried by a NASA rocket and scrubbed an tried touchdown in November. A lander made by Japanese startup ispace crashed in April because it tried to descend to the lunar floor.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Tom Hogue and Gerry Doyle)
By Kantaro Komiya
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