Comparison of Asian national space programs to fuel future energy demands in Asia. All three main Asian space powers plan to send men to the Moon in the distant future and have already sent lunar probes. Japan was the first Asian country to launch a lunar probe. The Hiten (Japanese: "flying angel") spacecraft (known before the launch as MUSES-A), built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan, was launched on 24 January 1990. In many ways, the mission did not go as was planned. Kaguya, the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft, was launched on 14 September 2007. China launched its first lunar probe,
Explorer 38 Explorer 38 Explorer 38 (also called as Radio Astronomy Explorer A, RAE-A and RAE-1) was the first satellite to study radioastronomy. Explorer 38 was launched as part of the Explorers program, being the first of the 2 satellites RAE. Explorer 38 was launched on 4 July 1968 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, United States, with an Delta J rocket. Explorer 38 measured the intensity of celestial radio sources, particularly the Sun, as a function of time, direction and frequency (0.2 MHz to 20 MHz). The spacecraft was gravity gradient oriented. The spacecraft weight was , and average power consumption