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
Antoniadi (lunar crater) unusually flat and smooth, with the central peak being the only notable feature. The floor outside the inner ring is much rougher in texture. The most notable crater on the interior floor lies across the eastern edge of the southern inner ring range. The bottom of Antoniadi crater is measured—by using the laser altimeter (LALT) instrument on board the Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) satellite—to be the lowest point on the moon (provisionally named Point Trieste after the Bathysphere Trieste that was the first vehicle to descend to the world's deepest point) and rests 9 kilometers (more than 5.5