Japan has become the world’s fifth country to put a spacecraft on the moon, after its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) made a soft landing on the lunar surface.

Tokyo’s space agency said on Saturday that it was examining the communication with its probe after the landing, during an attempt to revitalise a space programme that suffered recent setbacks.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the SLIM landed on the moon’s surface at around 12:20 a.m. (15:20 GMT Friday), but it was still confirming communication with the probe.

Dubbed the “moon sniper”, SLIM attempted to land within 100 metres (328 feet) of its target, versus the conventional accuracy of several kilometres.

JAXA says this landing technology will become a powerful tool in future exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a potential source of oxygen, fuel and water - factors necessary to sustain life. 

It will take up to a month to verify whether SLIM had achieved the high-precision goals, JAXA has said.

Japan is increasingly looking to play a bigger role in space, partnering with ally the United States to counter China. 

Japan is also home to several private-sector space startups and the JAXA aims to send an astronaut to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program in the next few years.

But the Japanese space agency has recently faced multiple setbacks in rocket development, including the launch failure in March of its new flagship rocket H3 that was meant to match cost-competitiveness against commercial rocket providers like SpaceX.