SLIM Spaceccraft

• Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon after a months-long journey, and ahead of its planned moon-landing attempt in January 2024.
• Its apogee (farthest point) in this orbit is 4,000 km and perigee (closest point) is 600 km above the lunar surface.
• If the attempt succeeds, Japan will become only the fifth country to soft-land a robotic craft on the natural satellite, months after India succeeded with its Chandrayaan 3 mission in August.

About SLIM

• SLIM is a spacecraft built and launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on September 7, 2023, from the Tanegashima spaceport.
• It weighed only 590 kg at launch.
• SLIM was launched together with XRISM, a next-generation X-ray space telescope, onboard an H-2A rocket.
  • The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is a joint mission of the JAXA and NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency as well.
  • It aims to observe X-rays coming from deep space and to identify their wavelengths with unprecedented precision.