Tokyo, 7 September 2023 (dpa/MIA) — Japan has sent a probe on its way to the moon, with the rocket blasting off from the Tanegashima spaceport in the south-west of the country on Thursday.

The launch, on Tanegashima island, had been postponed several times due to bad weather conditions.

The rocket is carrying the SLIM lunar lander developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to test technologies for precision landings on the lunar surface.

A successful landing on the Earth's nearest neighbour would make Japan only the fifth country ever to achieve such a feat.

On August 23, India landed a spacecraft safely on the moon after a similar attempt by Russia failed. The United States, the Soviet Union and China had previously been the only countries to safely land a lunar spacecraft.

Japan plans for SLIM to enter lunar orbit about three to four months after the launch and expects it to reach the lunar surface in four to six months.

Data collected by Japan on the moon will be used as part of the US-led Artemis project, which eventually aims to send a manned mission to the moon and advance lunar exploration by 2025. The long-term goal is human exploration of Mars.