JAXA SLIM moon lander survives second lunar night

March 28 (UPI) -- The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday its SLIM moon lander survived a second lunar night.

JAXA said the SLIM -- short for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon -- sent a message indicating it had made it through the two-week period of light or darkness.

"Last night, we received a response from SLIM, confirming that the space craftmade it through the lunar night for the second time," JAXA said on X. "Since the sun was still high and the equipment was still hot, we only took some shots of the usual scenery with the navigation camera."

JAXA said that some temperature sensors and unused battery cells are starting to malfunction, according to data it has received. The space agency said, though, it was relieved to see that the majority of SLIM's functions remained active after the second lunar night.

JAXA said back in February it had re-established contact with SLIM after nearly a month.

SLIM landed on the Moon on Jan. 20, allowing it to join the United States, China Russia and India in making a successful moon landing. SLIM, however, landed upside down and lost power before getting its power back nine days later.

Since then, the lander Odysseus from the private U.S. company Intuitive Machines became the first private company to make a soft landing on a soft landing on the moon.