Japan says SLIM moon probe achieved 'pinpoint' landing

“Although the probe appears to be lying upside-down.”

Notice how differing news organizations report the same story.

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Japan Today (via Thomson Reuters): Japan achieved an unconventionally precise moon landing within a few meters of its target, the space agency said on Thursday, after the nation became the fifth to put a spacecraft on the moon with the weekend touchdown of its SLIM probe.

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Associated Press: Japan’s space agency said Thursday that its first lunar mission hit the tiny patch of the moon's surface it was aiming for, in a successful demonstration of its pinpoint landing system — although the probe appears to be lying upside-down. 

https://apnews.com/article/japan-moon-lander-slim-probe-pinpoint

Does it matter? Moon is not that small anyway.

Clear success !

Well done JAXA !

Flawless mission - big up to JAXA, the Japanese government and Japanese on this success!

Now to start preparing for Japanese citizens on the moon...

@Fighto!

Flawless mission

Upside-down SLIM with solar panels facing the wrong direction unable to generate power. That’s every except but “flawless,” isn’t it?

From the AP article …

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A pair of autonomous probes released by SLIM before touchdown sent back images of the box-shaped vehicle on the surface, although it appeared to be upside down. 

After a few days of data analysis, JAXA determined that the spacecraft landed about 55 meters (60 yards) away from its target.

But after the landing mishap, the craft’s solar panels wound up facing the wrong direction, and it cannot generate power. 

@sakursuki

Does it matter? Moon is not that small anyway.

With pinpoint landing capabilities they can search for water in the hilly regions of the poles where they hope to find water hidden in the shadows. Otherwise they'd have to stay in the flat boring plains.

The SLIM should have been covered full solar panels all over its body in case of upside down. They thought it would not land upside down.

It looks like SLIM rolled down on a little slope while landing there. Not crash down.

Good show, JAXA. I look forward to reading more of your accomplishments.

what Japan calls a landing is in fact a crash and failure.

the so-called JAXA uses a pretext of battery problems to speculate and deceive the reader.

Pretty impressive work with the drones if nothing else.

A shame that it landed on its side/upside down (depending on the report) but amazing that they nailed the landing to within 50 or so meters. Despite what JT's resident Japan-haters say, that's a world-first and will be critical tech for the future.

Looking forward to more JAXA missions, and to the Artemis program.

Well done JAXA.

Too bad it broke 2 hours later.

Maybe they can ask the more experienced American engineers how to do it properly. Oh wait, they all died of old age like 10-20 years ago.

If you want to KNOW what actually happend, in English language, at this time this is the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bFiJvbKyPs

Same experience as Asiaman7 above. I was surprised to see how the different news sites handled this. NHK have been the least forthcoming, virtually burying it, but J Yahoo and the Yomiuri actually used the words 'upside down'.

Hoping there is enough western sunlight in the next week to get some systems working.

Although the probe appears to be lying upside-down.

Classic media management, the lander is upside down, wonder if they will display this picture in JAXA office.

Does it really matter if that nonsense has uselessly burned quite some tax money at the precise location or any distance nearby or not? A lot of people have to get up in the morning , commute and work hard many hours for such a big nothing.