LONG SHOT

Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ Blasts Off on Unusual Landing Mission

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is aiming for a very specific target.

Japan’s “moon sniper” mission successfully launched on Thursday in an effort to make the country just the fifth in the world to land on the lunar surface and the first to do so with an unusual degree of accuracy. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was given its sniper moniker because it’s designed to land within just 100 meters (328 feet) of its target as opposed to the typical range of several kilometers. An H-IIA rocket launched from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan Thursday morning and SLIM was released successfully, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. “The big objective of SLIM is to prove the high-accuracy landing ... to achieve ‘landing where we want’ on the lunar surface, rather than ‘landing where we can,’” JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa told a news conference.