Japan’s space agency has suspended the planned launch of an H2A rocket carrying a moon lander, which was supposed to take place on Monday, due to unfavourable weather conditions, according to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the operator of the launch, as per a report by the news agency NHK.
The launch of an H2A rocket carrying the Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) probe was scheduled to take place on Monday morning at 9:26 AM from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture. However, the launch was cancelled just 24 minutes before the planned launch time due to unsuitable wind conditions in the upper atmosphere, as reported by MHI’s launch services unit.
MHI will provide further details about the updated launch time, the country’s space agency said in the planned livestream.
The SLIM probe, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has a mission to explore moon rocks and demonstrate precise landing procedures. If the mission succeeds, Japan will become the fifth country in the world to achieve a successful lunar landing.
The lunar landing data collected by the SLIM probe is expected to contribute to the US-led Artemis program, which aims to transport astronauts to the moon.
The launch of the H2A rocket also included the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a collaborative effort between JAXA, the US space agency NASA, and other organisations.
The delay of the lunar landing mission comes shortly after India successfully landed the Chandrayaan-3 lander module on the moon’s South Pole region on August 23, marking India as the fourth country – following the US, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union – to successfully achieve a lunar landing.
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