Japan will be the latest country to aim for the moon this weekend, just days after a Russian spacecraft collided with the lunar surface and India’s Chandrayaan-3 landed near its south pole. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s H2-A rocket is scheduled to take off on Sunday morning from Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan, carrying an advanced imaging satellite and a lightweight lander expected to touch down on the moon in January or February. JAXA’s H2-A, the agency’s most reliable rocket with just one failure out of 42 launches since 2001, will be carrying the Small Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM. Standing less than 3 metres tall, the lander could pave the way for other probes with high navigational accuracy. The rocket will also be carrying the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, a satellite that will help scientists observe plasma in stars and galaxies.
#JAXAmoonmission #Japanlunarmission #JAXA
~HT.98~PR.153~ED.155~
#JAXAmoonmission #Japanlunarmission #JAXA
~HT.98~PR.153~ED.155~
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Japan will be the latest country to aim for the moon this weekend, just days after a Russian
00:09 spacecraft collided with the lunar surface and India's Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed
00:13 near its south pole.
00:15 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's H-IIA rocket is scheduled to take off on Sunday
00:20 morning from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, carrying an advanced imaging satellite
00:25 and a lightweight lander expected to touch down on the moon in January or February next
00:30 year.
00:31 Jagsha's H-IIA, the agency's most reliable rocket, with just one failure out of 42 launches
00:37 since 2001, will be carrying the small lander for investigating moon or SLIM.
00:43 Standing less than 3 meters tall, the lander could pave the way for other probes with high
00:48 navigational accuracy.
00:50 The rocket will also be carrying the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, a satellite
00:55 that will help scientists observe plasma in stars and galaxies.
00:58 The success could provide the thrust Jagsha badly needs to begin rebuilding its battle
01:03 reputation after a series of costly setbacks over the past year.
01:09 These include several launch failures that derailed both the introduction of a next-generation
01:13 rocket and the agency's first attempt to launch commercial satellites.
01:18 Those blunders have put additional pressure on Jagsha to get it right this time.
01:22 The Japanese space agency's woes began in October last year when it abandoned the sixth
01:27 launch of its Epsilon rocket mid-flight.
01:30 The rocket was carrying two satellites from Jagsha's first commercial contracts, part
01:35 of an attempt to meet growing demand in the private sector.
01:39 It was the first major failure of a Japanese rocket since 2003 and the Jagsha inquiry had
01:44 blamed a faulty path that prevented the rocket from staying upright to reach orbit.
01:49 In November last year, Jagsha revealed a research team had falsified large amounts of data collected
01:55 during an experiment simulating life on the International Space Station.
01:59 In February of 2023, the agency had also postponed the inaugural launch of the H-3, Jagsha's
02:05 successor to the H-2A, after a system malfunction between its main engine and side booster kept
02:11 the rocket grounded.
02:12 In July this year, the engine of an Epsilon-S rocket had exploded during a ground test,
02:17 causing flames and a pillar of smoke to consume a facility in northern Japan's Akita prefecture.
02:23 Japan is hoping to leave its past failures behind and is pinning hopes on the success
02:28 of this lunar mission.
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