H2A rocket with Japan's lunar lander successfully lifts off

An H2A rocket carrying the Japanese space agency's lunar lander was launched Thursday at Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, making it the first liftoff in Japan of a major domestic rocket since March amid an intensifying global space race.With the SLIM small-scale explorer designed to test technology for pinpoint landings on the lunar surface, Japan aims to become the fifth country after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India to land a craft on the Moon.According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the H2A, which took off at 8:42 a.m., "flew as plann…READ FULL ARTICLE