Japan Becomes Fifth Country To Reach Moon

Japan Becomes Fifth Country To Reach Moon

Japan has become the fifth country to reach the lunar surface, as it spacecraft reached the moon, but officials said they still need to analyse the pinpoint accuracy of the landing.

Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, said they believe that rovers were launched and data was being transmitted back to Earth.

But there could be an issue with the power supply.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) landed at about 12.20am Tokyo time on Saturday (1520 GMT Friday).

Japan follows the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India in reaching the Moon.