A Japanese spacecraft touched down on the moon early Saturday, Tokyo time, making Japan the fifth country to reach the moon.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the mission may not be a complete success because the spacecraft’s solar cell is not generating electricity as it should.
Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, said the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon was relying on batteries. At a press conference, when asked to rate the landing operation, he said he would give it a “60 out of 100,” dubbing it a “minimum success.”
Officials said they needed more time to determine whether the spacecraft made the pinpoint landing it needed for the mission to have been declared a success, but they were hopeful that the spacecraft could gather as much data about the moon as possible on its remaining battery.
