Shanshan, Downgraded from Typhoon, Leaves 7 Dead, Damage in Japan

 Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)
Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)
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Shanshan, Downgraded from Typhoon, Leaves 7 Dead, Damage in Japan

 Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)
Firefighters help clean up floodwater out of a house in Ogaki, central Japan, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, following a tropical storm in the area. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)

Tropical cyclone Shanshan, downgraded from a typhoon, left seven people dead and widespread damage as it churned off the Pacific coast of central Japan on Sunday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency continued to warn of landslides, floods and rising water levels in rivers in western and eastern Japan, citing increased risks due to ground loosening from record-breaking rainfall since the storm hit the southern coast on Thursday.

On the Pacific side of eastern Japan, unstable atmospheric conditions caused by rain clouds around the tropical cyclone and the inflow of warm, moist air from a Pacific high-pressure system were causing heavy rain and thunderstorms, the agency said.

Some Shinkansen "bullet train" services remained disrupted, but Tokyo-Osaka service, suspended in some sections, will resume on Sunday evening, Central Japan Railway said.

The seventh death from Shanshan was reported in Fukuoka in southwestern Japan on Sunday, Kyodo news agency said.

Before that, the typhoon had crept eastward, drenching large areas with torrential rain, triggering landslide and flood warnings hundreds of kilometers from the storm's center.



Intuitive Machines' Athena Lander Closing in on Lunar Touchdown Site

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex-39A carrying the Nova-C lunar lander Athena as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload initiative from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, February 26, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File Photo
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex-39A carrying the Nova-C lunar lander Athena as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload initiative from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, February 26, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File Photo
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Intuitive Machines' Athena Lander Closing in on Lunar Touchdown Site

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex-39A carrying the Nova-C lunar lander Athena as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload initiative from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, February 26, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File Photo
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex-39A carrying the Nova-C lunar lander Athena as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload initiative from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, February 26, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius/File Photo

Intuitive Machines sent final commands to its uncrewed Athena spacecraft on Thursday as it closed in on a landing spot near the moon's south pole, the company's second attempt to score a clean touchdown after making a lopsided landing last year.

After launching atop a SpaceX rocket on Feb. 26 from Florida, the six-legged Athena lander has flown a winding path to the moon some 238,000 miles (383,000 km) away from Earth, where it will attempt to land closer to the lunar south pole than any other spacecraft.

The landing is scheduled for 12:32 pm ET (1732 GMT). It will target Mons Mouton, a flat-topped mountain some 100 miles (160 km) from the lunar south pole, Reuters reported.

Five nations have made successful soft landings in the past - the then-Soviet Union, the US, China, India and, last year, Japan. The US and China are both rushing to put their astronauts on the moon later this decade, each courting allies and giving their private sectors a key role in spacecraft development.

India's first uncrewed moon landing, Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, touched down near the lunar south pole. The region is eyed by major space powers for its potential for resource extraction once humans return to the surface - subsurface water ice could theoretically be converted into rocket fuel.

The Houston-based company's first moon landing attempt almost exactly a year ago, using its Odysseus lander, marked the most successful touchdown attempt at the time by a private company.

But its hard touchdown - due to a faulty laser altimeter used to judge its distance from the ground - broke a lander leg and caused the craft to topple over, dooming many of its onboard experiments.

Austin-based Firefly Aerospace this month celebrated a clean touchdown of its Blue Ghost lander, making the most successful soft landing by a private company to date.

Intuitive Machines, Firefly, Astrobotic Technology and a handful of other companies are building lunar spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, an effort to seed development of low-budget spacecraft that can scour the moon's surface before the US sends astronauts there around 2027.