Will Japan Succeed as the World's 5th After the US, Soviet Union, China, and India?

Japan's Small Lunar Probe Scheduled to Land on the 20th
Entered Lunar Orbit as of the 14th, Orbiting Around
All Previous Attempts Failed... Success in Focus

Japan's lunar probe will attempt to land on the moon on the 20th (local time).

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced on the 18th that the small lunar probe 'SLIM' will begin its descent toward the moon at 0:00 on the 20th and is expected to land on the moon about 20 minutes later.

The H2A rocket No. 47 captured at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan, on August 27 last year. On the 4th, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that the H2A rocket No. 47 carrying the small lunar explorer SLIM and the X-ray spectroscopic satellite XRISM would be launched at around 8:42 a.m. on the 7th. JAXA has repeatedly postponed the launch schedule due to worsening weather conditions. [Image source=Yonhap News]

If successful, Japan will become the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the moon, following the United States, the former Soviet Union, China, and India.

SLIM was launched last September aboard the H2A rocket No. 47 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. As of the 14th, it has entered lunar orbit at an altitude of 600 km and is orbiting the moon. SLIM aims to reduce the landing error margin to within 100 meters and, after landing, will carry out a mission to measure the types of minerals contained in lunar surface rocks using a special camera.

Japan has attempted lunar landings before but has failed each time. Although Japan has made significant progress in space exploration?such as the JAXA probe Hayabusa2 landing on the asteroid Ryugu about 340 million km from Earth in July 2019, collecting samples from its surface, and returning them to Earth?it has yet to succeed in landing on the moon.