MOON MIRACLE: Japan’s SLIM moon lander magically comes alive after lunar night

JAW DROPPING REVIVAL: Japan’s SLIM lander is alive after a long sleep on the moon. Defying odds, SLIM lander responded to a command from Earth after hibernating for nearly a month. Part of that downtime fell during the cold of the moon’s two-week night, mission officials announced early Monday (Feb. 26). Japan’s space agency made contact with its SLIM moon lander Sunday, despite the spacecraft not being expected to function after lunar night. Contact with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft was reestablished on Sunday, Feb. 25, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced via its dedicated SLIM account on X, formerly known as Twitter, early Feb. 26. The mission team received telemetry from SLIM around 5:00 a.m. Eastern (1000 UTC). The temperature of the communication equipment was extremely high, according to JAXA, due to the sun being high over the landing area. Communication was terminated after only a short period of time, JAXA stated. #JAXA #LEV2 #SLIM