Tokyo : The first images of the moon surface from the moon’s orbit have been released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) moon lander. The 2.7-meter SLIM launched on September 6 along with XRISM, a potent X-ray space telescope. The spacecraft successfully entered lunar orbit on Christmas day, paving the way for the country’s first-ever moon landing on January 20, 2024, according to the agency. The monochrome image released by JAXA on X shows the moon surface marked with craters. The images were created after the spacecraft was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on December 25 at 4:51 p.m. Japan time.

“SLIM successfully completed main engine injection at 16:51 and successfully entered lunar orbit! Below is an image sent from SLIM near the moon,” JAXA officials wrote.

If successful to make a landing, Japan will become just the fifth country to successfully soft-land on the Moon, after Russia, US, China and India.

JAXA had said that the lunar orbit of SLIM will be inserted into an elliptical lunar orbit connecting the Moon’s north and south poles with a period of approximately 6.4 hours, and altitude of about 600 km at the closest point to the Moon (perilune), and 4,000 km at the furthest point from the Moon (apolune). The orbit change proceeded as planned, and the spacecraft is currently in a normal condition.

“From now until mid-January 2024, the apolune point will be lowered, and the orbit adjusted to a circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 600km. The perilune point will then lower and preparations for landing will begin,” the update read.

The perilune point will be lowered to a height of 15 km on January 19, and on January 20, at around 0:00 am (JST), the descent towards the Moon will begin. On January 20, at around 0:20 am (JST), a lunar landing is planned.

The agency had previously stated that “a next opportunity is scheduled around February 16, 2024” in the event that the landing is not carried out at the appointed time.

Japan has previously failed in two lunar landing attempts. JAXA lost contact with the OMOTENASHI lander and scrubbed an attempted landing in November, while the Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, by Japanese startup ispace, crashed in April as it attempted to descend to the lunar surface.

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