SELENE lunar exploration missions or lunar outpost construction on the Moon between 2018 and 2025. SELENE SELENE (; Selenological and Engineering Explorer), better known in Japan by its nickname , was the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft following the Hiten probe. Produced by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), the spacecraft was launched on September 14, 2007. After successfully orbiting the Moon for a year and eight months, the main orbiter was instructed to impact on the lunar surface near the crater Gill on June 10, 2009. The orbiter's nickname, Kaguya, was
SELENE in the ancient Japanese folktale "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". After their successful release, its sub-satellites, Rstar and Vstar, were named Okina and Ouna, also derived from characters in the tale. The main scientific objectives of the mission were to: SELENE launched on 14 September 2007 at 01:31:01 UTC on an H-IIA (Model H2A2022) carrier rocket from Tanegashima Space Center into a (perigee) / (apogee) geocentric parking orbit. The total launch mass was . The SELENE mission was originally scheduled to launch in 2003, but rocket failures on another mission and technical difficulties delayed the launch until 2007. Launch