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 49 Explorer 49 Explorer 49 (also called Radio Astronomy Explorer-B(RAE-B)) was a 328 kilogram satellite launched on June 10, 1973 for long wave radio astronomy research. It had four 230-meter long X-shaped antenna elements, which made it one of the largest spacecraft ever built. "Explorer 49" was launched after the termination of the Apollo program, and although it did not examine the Moon directly, it became the last American lunar mission until the launch of Clementine spacecraft in 1994. This mission was the second of a pair of Radio Astronomy Explorer (RAE) satellites, "Explorer 38" or RAE-A being the first. "Explorer