Japan’s space agency “checking status“ of Moon lander
Enlarge / This artist's illustration shows the SLIM spacecraft descending toward the Moon and ejecting two deployable robots onto the lunar surface. (credit: JAXA)
The Japanese space agency's first lunar lander appeared to reach the Moon's surface Friday, but officials were still "checking the status" of the spacecraft more than an hour after it touched down.
Japan's robotic Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission began a 20-minute final descent using two hydrazine-fueled engines to drop out of orbit. After holding to hover at 500 meters and then 50 meters altitude, SLIM pulsed its engines to fine-tune its vertical descent before touching down at 10:20 am EST (15:20 UTC).
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which manages the SLIM mission, streamed the landing live on YouTube. But the stream of updates stopped after SLIM's landing, and the webcast hosts did not provide any update on the status of the spacecraft before ending live coverage about 10 minutes later.