AkaSci OP ,
@AkaSci@fosstodon.org avatar

SLIM was launched on Sep 6, 2023 and it took an unusual 110-day path to get to the moon.

Instead of traveling straight to the moon (like the Apollo missions), which requires a lot of fuel to slow down once it gets near the moon, SLIM went way past the moon, used the moon's gravity and that of earth, to enter an elliptical orbit whose perigee was close to the Moon's orbit. It was injected into lunar orbit on Dec 25, 2023, followed by a few orbit lowerings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Lander_for_Investigating_Moon

3/n

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