JAPAN LANDED IN MOON

Japan's Moon lander achieves successful soft landing, resumes operations

Japan's Moon lander has resumed operations, indicating that power has been restored, the space agency said on X (formerly Twitter). "Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM, and resumed operations," JAXA wrote on the microblogging site.

Referring to the lander's multiband spectroscopic camera, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said, “We immediately started scientific observations with MBC, and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation."

The agency also posted on X an image shot by the probe of a "toy poodle", a rock observed near the lander.

Earlier this month, the touchdown made Japan only the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India.