Japan spacecraft enters lunar orbit for Moon landing on Jan. 20

Japan's lunar explorer successfully entered the Moon's orbit Monday, the country's space agency said, with the spacecraft expected to land on its surface on Jan. 20 if the mission goes as planned.Using its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, which was launched on an H2A rocket in September, Japan plans to become the fifth country to land an explorer on the lunar surface after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India amid intensifying global competition in space.SLIM is designed to test technology for conducting pinpoint landings on the surface of gravitation…READ FULL ARTICLE