India has recently landed its Moon Impact Probe on the Moon. Among the following countries, which one landed such probe on the Moon earlier ?

Japan carried out an earlier deliberate lunar impact: its Hiten spacecraft entered lunar vicinity and was intentionally crashed into the Moon on April 10, 1993, after its orbit decayed and remaining propellant was expended to impact the surface [1]. India’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP) from Chandrayaan‑1 separated on 14 November 2008 and hard‑landed near the lunar south pole later that day, making India a later entrant in lunar impactors [2]. Since Japan’s Hiten impact occurred well before India’s 2008 MIP, Japan is the correct choice among the options.

Sources

1. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/02_3lunar_missions.pdf
2. [2] https://sci.esa.int/documents/34200/36212/1567256196657-097_Moon-Impact-Probe_rev.pdf