The Japanese space agency delayed the launch of the Lunar Sniper lunar mission for the third time on Monday due to bad weather. The H2-A rocket, which will be launched from the southern island of Tanegashima, also carried a research satellite jointly developed by NASA and the European Space Agency. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has not given a new start date for the upcoming mission after India successfully landed a probe on the moon last week.

MHI Launch Services, the rocket’s co-developer, said on social media platform X that the mission was canceled “as it was confirmed that the overhead wind did not meet launch restrictions.” Last week, India landed a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole; it was the world’s most populous country and a historic victory for the low-cost space program.

Previously, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to bring spacecraft to the surface of the Moon, while none have reached the South Pole. India’s success came just days after a Russian probe crashed in the same area, and four years after India’s previous attempt failed at the last moment.

Japan had previously tried to land the moon probe Omotenashi, carried on NASA’s Artemis 1 vehicle, but the mission went awry and communication was lost. In April, Japanese startup ispace failed in its ambitious goal of becoming the first private company to set foot on the moon, losing contact after what the company called a “hard landing”.

The Lunar Sniper is so named because JAXA aims to land it within 100 meters (330 feet) of a specific target on the moon; this is much less than the normal range of a few kilometers. Japan also had problems with its launchers; Due to the failures in March following the launch of the next-gen H3 model and the generally reliable solid-fuel Epsilon last October. Source