Japan’s moon lander survives two-week lunar night after wonky landing

Unmanned Slim spacecraft responds to signal from Earth after touching down at awkward angle in January

Japan’s moon lander has responded to a signal from Earth, suggesting it survived the two-week lunar night, the country’s space agency has said.

The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. But as the sun’s angle shifted, it came back to life for two days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a hi-spec camera.