Japan Launches Lunar Lander and X-Ray Satellite in Bid to Join Select Group of Moon Landers

Japan launched a lunar lander called SLIM designed to achieve a precise landing within 100 meters of its target on the moon's surface.
The launch also carried an advanced X-ray telescope called XRISM developed jointly with NASA to study the motion and chemistry of cosmic phenomena.
The liftoff occurred aboard an H-IIA rocket after multiple delays due to weather from Japan's Tanegashima space center.
If successful, Japan would join the US, Russia, China and India as the only countries to have landed spacecraft on the lunar surface.
The missions represent Japan's renewed efforts in space exploration after facing setbacks, as global competition to explore the moon intensifies.