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
Explorer 50 Explorer 50 Explorer 50, also known as IMP-J or IMP-8, was a NASA satellite launched to study the magnetosphere. It was the eighth and last in a series of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform. Explorer 50 was launched on 23 October 1973 at 02:26:03 UTC, by a Delta 1604 rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida. The spacecraft functioned nominally until 7 October 2006. The satellite orbited the Earth once every 12 days, at an inclination of 28.6 degrees. Its perigee was 22 earth radii and apogee was 45 earth radii. Explorer 50 was a drum-shaped spacecraft, across and height, with propulsion