Japan’s space agency on Monday postponed the launch of its “Moon Sniper” lunar mission for the third time due to poor weather. Japan’s H2-A rocket to blast off from the southern island of Tanegashima was also carrying a research satellite developed with NASA and the European Space Agency. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) gave no new date for the start of the mission, which comes after India successfully landed a probe on the Moon last week.
The mission was cancelled, according to MHI Launch Services, the rocket’s co-developer, on social networking platform X, “because it was confirmed that the upper wind does not satisfy the constraints at launch.”
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Last week India landed a craft near the Moon’s south pole. It is a historic triumph for the country and its low-cost space programme.
Previously, only the United States, Russia and China had put a spacecraft on the lunar surface. But none other than India put on the south pole.
India’s success came days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region. Four years after a previous Indian attempt failed at the last moment.
Japan has also tried before, attempting last year to land a lunar probe named Omotenashi, carried on NASA’s Artemis 1, but the mission went wrong and communications were lost.
In April, Japanese start-up space failed in an ambitious attempt to become the first private company to land on the Moon. It lost communication after what the firm called a “hard landing”.
The “Moon Sniper” is so called because JAXA aims to land it within 100 metres. Which is (330 feet) of a specific target on the Moon. It is far less than the usual range of several kilometres.
Japan has also had problems with launch rockets. It has failures after liftoff of the next-generation H3 model in March. And the normally reliable solid-fuel Epsilon the previous October.
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