Exploration of the Moon with the Hiten spacecraft, becoming the third country to place an object in orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft released the Hagoromo probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed, thereby preventing further scientific use of the spacecraft. In September 2007, Japan launched the SELENE spacecraft, with the objectives "to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration", according to the JAXA official website. The European Space Agency launched a small, low-cost lunar orbital probe called SMART 1 on September 27, 2003. SMART 1's primary goal was to take
Apollo (spacecraft) the point where it was no longer needed, and the SLA remained attached to the launch vehicle's upper stage. Two unmanned CSM's, one unmanned LM and one manned CSM were carried into space by Saturn IB launch vehicles for low Earth orbit Apollo missions. Larger Saturn Vs launched two unmanned CSM's on high Earth orbit test flights, the CSM on one manned lunar mission, the complete spacecraft on one manned low Earth orbit mission and eight manned lunar missions. After conclusion of the Apollo program, four CSM's were launched on Saturn IBs for three Skylab Earth orbital missions and the