TOKYO -- Japan's space agency on Thursday confirmed a successful pinpoint touchdown of its lunar lander but released an image of the craft resting upside down on the moon's surface, its engines pointing into the dark sky.
The spacecraft, named the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), landed 55 meters east of the designated spot at 12:20 a.m. on Saturday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. That achieved the goal of putting the lander within 100 meters of the target point -- a world first -- and made Japan the fifth nation to achieve a soft touchdown on the moon after the Soviet Union, the U.S., China and India.
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